
Book rr3£>3 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



AN OUTLINE 



GENERAL HISTORY 



1[]3tl ^^ %U of It^H^S 






/REVISED EDITIOM 



, OF COMJ ff),^. 




M. E; THALHEIMER 

Auf/ior of "A Mamial of Ancient Historyr "A Manual of Medt,Fval and 

Modern History," "A History of England:' "The Eclectic History 

of the United States," etc. 



VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG 6- CO. 



Cincinnati 



New York 



THALHEIMER'S HISTORICAL SERIES. 



Eclectic History of the United States. 
History of England. 
General History. 
Ancient History. 
Eastern Empires {separate). 
History of Greece {separate). 
History of Rome {separate). 
MediiEiHil and Modern History. 



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BY Van Antwerp, Bkacg & Co, 



•Eclectic Press 
Van Antwerp. Bragg & Co. 

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PREFACE. 



In the Outline of General History, as presented to the 
public nearly six years ago, the aim was to combine the ex- 
treme of brevity with a lively and simple narrative, such as 
might supply the present need of young scholars, while af- 
fording a symmetrical plan for the research of older ones. 

It was felt that much labor was left to the teacher in filling 
up the outline thus offered; but the author lias had the satis- 
faction of knowing that the book, in its several editions, has 
been both ably and successfully used. 

In the present enlarged edition, much of the needed sup- 
plementary matter has been added in the form of notes upon 
each chapter. The selection from such a wealth of material 
has of course been a matter of difficulty, and it is not to be 
supposed that a perfect proportion has been attained. It is 
hoped, however, that the more practical aim has been meas- 
urably reached, — of contributing somewhat to the conven- 
ience of teachers and the profit of pupils. 

References to authorities have been multiplied, and the 
quotations, though necessarily brief, may serve as guides to a 
more extensive reading of the works from which they are 
taken. 



IV PREFACE. 

The Maps and Engravings are the same as in previous 
editions, of which they constituted an important part of the 
value. 

Cordial thanks are due to several distinguished teachers, 
who, from their experience in the actual use of the book, have 
contributed valuable suggestions for the correction of the 
plates. 

Grateful for the favor with which the Outline of General 
History has already been received, the author commends it 
anew to the candid judgment of teachers, hoping that to 
their pupils this revised and enlarged edition may convey 
some hint, however inadequate, of the wealth of historical 
literature that awaits their perusal, and of the fullness of life 
in the ages of which they are the heirs. 



Brooklyn, N. Y., | 



April, 1883. 



CONTENTS. 

Introduction ...... Page 7 

BOOK I.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 
PART I. — Nations of Asia and Africa. 

Chapter P^^Se 
I. Dispersion of Races — Chaldaea, Assyria, Media, and 

Babylonia ....... 9 

II. Smaller Asiatic States — Phoenicia, Syria, and Asia 

Minor '9 

III. The Hebrews 25 

IV. The Medo-Persian Empire . . . . . 3^ 
V. African States and Colonies ..... 42 



PART II. — Hellenic States. 

VI. Earliest History of the Greeks — their Religion 

VII. Sparta and Athens ...... 

VIII. The Persian, Peloponnesian, and Corinthian Wars 

IX. Greek Literature, Philosophy, and Art 

X. Alexander the Great ..... 

XI. Successors of Alexander ..... 



52 
63 
70 
84 
94 
99 



PART III. — Rome. 

XII. The Roman Kingdom — Its Religion 

XIII. The Roman Republic — Samnite Wars 

XIV. The Roman Republic, Continued — Punic Wars 
XV. " " " Civil Wars 

XVI. The Roman Empire ..... 

XVII. " " Continued 

XVIII. The Northern Barbarians .... 



106 

112 

121 

129 
14.0 
150 
158 



(V) 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK II. — MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 
Introduction 



Page 167 



Chapter 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 



PART I.— The Dark Ages. 

Settlements of the Northern Tribes 
The Roman Empire in the East 
The Saracens ..... 
The Western Empire Restored 
The Northmen .... 



PART II.— The Middle Ages. 

VI. The Crusades ........ 

VII. Cjuelfs and Ghibellines — Rise of Italian and German 
Cities .... 

VIII. The Tartar Conquests 

IX. Plantagenets in England . 

X. House of Capet in France 

XI. The Empire and the Church 

XII. Languages and Literature 

XIII. Dawn of the Modern Era 



BOOK III.— MODERN HISTORY. 



I. The French in Italy ..... 

II. Charles V. and the Reformation — The Turks 

III. House of Orleans in France .... 

IV. The Tudors in England ..... 
V. Rise of the Dutch Republic .... 

VI. The Stuarts in Great Britain .... 

VII. The House of Austria and the Thirty Years' War 

VIII. European Colonies ...... 

IX. The Northern Kingdoms .... 

X. The Bourbons in France .... 

XL Great Britain under the House of Brunswick . 

XII. British Empire in the East .... 

XIII. The French Revolution ..... 

XIV. Absolutists and Liberals in Europe 

XV. The Second French Empire .... 

XVI. American Affairs ...... 



OUTLINES OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



1. From the earliest known times, men have been 
divided into two classes — those who, wandering from 
place to place, lived upon the wild products of the earth, 
or upon the milk and flesh of their herds; and those 
who, preferring settled abodes, built cities and villages, 
and increased their wealth by mining, tillage, mechanical 
arts, and commerce. 

2. The first settled communities could only exist near 
great rivers, where the fertile soil afforded plenty of food, 
as in the valleys of the Ganges, Indus, Tigris, Euphrates, 
and Nile ; while beyond the great mountain barrier which 
divides central from southern Asia, roamed the ancient 
Scythians, ancestors of fierce and wandering tribes, which 
frequently burst their bounds, carrying ruin to the rich 
cities and harvest fields of the southern plains. With the 
progress of the world, the nomadic or wandering races 
have become fewer, and the civilized more numerous ; 
but to this day the steppes of central Asia are occupied 
by roving tribes. 

3. History begins with the formation of settled com- 
munities. Other sciences deal with man as an animal, 
or classify the several races according to their languages, 
habitations, and use of metals. Histor}- has to do with 

(7) 



8 INTRODUCTION. 



civilized man, and describes the raids of barbarians only as 
it tells of earthquakes and floods which have overthrown 
his dwellings and destroyed his wealth. 

4. The populous communities of India, China, and 
Japan — though they contributed their jewels, spices, per- 
fumes, and silken garments to the luxury of the western 
Asiatics — were so little known to the Greek and Roman 
writers, that they also are beyond the range of ancient 
History. We have only to tell the story of those nations 
which, through their art, their literature, or their laws, 
have helped to make our modern society what it is. 

5. History is divided into three periods : Ancient, Me- 
diaeval, and Modern. 

Ancient History describes the states that rose and fell 
in western Asia, Africa, and Europe, until A. D. 476, when 
the German race became predominant in the latter, and 
overthrew the Roman Empire of the West. 

Mediaeval History covers the thousand years between 
the breaking-up of the old order and the establishment of 
the new. It tells how the tribes of northern barbarians 
grew to be the nations of modern Europe, and ends with 
the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, A. D. 1453. 

The opening of Modern History is marked by the revival 
of learning, the multiplication of printed books, the discov- 
ery of America, and the reformation in religion. 

Cuneiform Characters. 



BOOK I.— THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



PART I. — Nations of Asia and Africa. 



CHAPTER I. 



DISPERSION OF RACES — CHALD^A, ASSYRIA, MEDIA, AND 
BABYLONIA. 




Assyrian War Chariot. 

^^»^*HE earliest known attempt to form a settled 
W^\ community was made by the sons of Noah, 
^^^ at Babel, after the Flood. It was defeated by 
the Confusion of Tongues. See Gen. xi : 4-9. The 
three families then separated. The children of Japhet 
were divided, one part traveling westward by many paths 
into Europe, ^ while another, moving eastward, occupied the 

(9) 



lO THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

table-lands of Iran, Hactria, and northern India. They 
were the parents of the Indo-Germanic or Aryan race, 
whose active intellect has made it the leader of the world 
in art. hterature. and laws. 

7. The children of Shem remained upon the fertile 
plains of the Tigris and Euphrates. This family has ever 
been distinguished for intense religious feeling; and from 
its ranks came the Chosen People, to whom were com- 
mitted the written revelations of God. 

Part of the Hamites moved to the shores of the jNIed- 
iterranean, and established the great empire of Egypt; 
while Ximrod, a grandson of Ham, built Babylon, and 
became the founder of the Chaldsean Kingdom- south of 
the Euphrates. The Hamites were great builders : in 
Egypt their massive pyramids and temples have proved 
almost as lasting as the eternal hills; but in Chaldsea the 
want of stone compelled them to use a more perishable 
material. Gen. xi : 3. From the clay of the plain and a 
natural bituminous cement, they erected buildings^ which 
were the wonders of the ancient world. 

8. The Chaldseans were diligent students of the heavens, 
and their astronomical records date from the twenty-third 
century before Christ. They were the inventors of writing, 
which the Phoenician merchants learned from them and 
taught to the rest of the world. In writing, as in build- 
ing, their ingenuit}^ enabled them to make use of simple 
and rude materials; their wedge-shaped letters were im- 
])ressed, with a stick, upon tablets or cylinders of clay, 
which were afterward either baked or dried in the sun. 
The earliest Chald^ean hterature, so far as it has yet been 
read, consists chiefly of prayers, hymns, and charms against 
evil spirits. 

g. In the thirteenth century B. C, Chald^a was ab- 
sorbed into the Semitic Empire of Assyria, This, at its 
greatest extent, reached from the Nile and the Mediter- 



ASS YR TAX EMPIRE. 



ranean on the west to the mountains of Media on the 
east. The Assyrians were a vigorous nation, "all mighty 
men;" and their kings commonly led their armies in 
person, sharing the hardships of night-marches and toil- 
some campaigns among the mountains. 

a. The First Period of Assyrian history begins in un- 
known antiquity, and ends with the Conquest of Babylon 
by Tiglathi-nin, about 1250 B. C. 

b. The Second Period extends from the latter event to 
the independence of Babylon, about 745 B. C. 

c. The Third Period comprises the New or Lower Em- 
pire of Assyria, B. C. 745-625. 

10. Although monuments, lately discovered, give com- 
plete lists of the Assyrian kings, from B. C. 1850, yet we 
know very little of the early centuries of their history. It 
was Tiglath-pileser I ( B. C. 1 120- 1 100) who made As- 
syria the foremost nation in the world. It declined as 
the Hebrew monarchy expanded, but became powerful 
again after the death of Solomon. 

11. I'va-lush IV, or Vul-nira'ri ( B. C. 810-781), was 
the husband of Sam'mura'mit, a Babylonian princess, whom 
the Greeks called Semiramis. ^ Her name is associated with 
wonderful stories of conquests and public works. But these 
are mere fables concerning a mythical personage who lived, 
if at all, 500 years earlier. The real power and wealth 
of Sammuramit entitled her to a mention in Assyrian an- 
nals — an honor accorded to no other woman. There is 
some reason to believe that during this joint reign of Iva- 
lush and Sammuramit, the Hebrew prophet Jonah preached 
repentance to the Ninevites. If so, it was Iva-lush him- 
self who laid aside his royal robes and sat in sack-cloth 
and ashes. (Jonah, iii and iv.) Forty years of humiliation 
followed, and the subject province of Babylon became not 
only independent but for a few years supreme. 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



12. Tiglath-pileser II ( B. C. 745-727) was the founder 
of the New or Lower Assyrian Empire. He extended his 
dominion to the Mediterranean, and received tribute from 
all the kings of Syria and Palestine. Tyre, the richest 
maritime t:ity in the world, paid three tons of gold into 
his treasury. He and his successors removed thousands 
of caj)tive Israelites to Media and the river Gozan, filling 
their places with Baljylonians. (Read 2 Kings xv : 29, 
and xvii:4-6, 24-33.). 

13. Sargon ( B. C. 721-705) was one of the greatest 
Assyrian kings. He defeated the Egyptians and Philis- 
tines in the great battle of Raphia,''and afterward annexed 
Babylon to his empire. His son Sennach'erib (B. C. 705- 
680) gained many victories o\ er Phoenicians, Philistines, 
Egyptians, and Ethiopians. He took "all the fenced 
cities of Judah," and insolently threatened Jerusalem. 
But his pride was humbled l)y the sudden destruction of 
185,000 of his soldiers, and he had to abandon most of 
his western conquests. (2 Kings xviii : 13-21, and xix.). 

14. E'sarhad'don (B. C 680-667) conquered Babylonia, 
Egypt, and Arabia ; and his son As'shur-ba'ni-pal raised the 
empire to its greatest i:)0wer and glory. He built many 
temples, and the finest of Assyrian palaces. He also 
collected a great library of clay tablets, inscribed with the 
records* of former kings, their letters, treaties, and laws ; 
discourses on mathematics, geography, and natural history; 



'•■■These kings' own words prove all that the Hebrew prophets 
wrote of their cruelty, not less than of their splendor and power. 
One of them thus describes his treatment of a contjuered city: 
"The men, young and old, I took prisoners: of some I cut off the 
feet and hands; of otliers I cut off the noses, ears, and lips: of 
the young men's ears I made a heap ; of the old men's heads I 
built a tower. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their 
city. The children I Inirnt in the flames. The city I destroyed 
and consumed and burnt in the fire." 



DESTRUCTION OF NINEVEH. 13 



directions for worship, and primeval traditions. Among 
the latter is the Chaldsean story of the Deluge, coinciding 
in many important points with that which we have in 
the Bible. 

15. The glory of Asshur-bani-pal was quickly followed 
by ruin under his successor. A wild horde of Scythians 
(§2) plundered the Assyrian cities; Media and Babylonia 
revolted; Nineveh was besieged and taken, its king was 
slain, and his dominions were divided between the con- 
querors, B. C. 625. The great cities of Assyria long lay 
in ruins : even the Greeks could only point to heaps of 
rubbish, under which Nineveh, Calah, and Resen were sup- 
posed to be buried. In late years, many of these mounds 
have been explored, and the magnificent palaces of Sargon, 
Sennacherib, and their successors, have contributed their 
sculptures to the adornment of European museums, and 
their inscriptions to our hitherto scanty knowledge of the 
primitive eastern nations. 

16. Media. — B. C. 633-558. The two allies who had 
put an end to the Assyrian Empire, were of very different 
rank. Media, a rough country south of the Caspian Sea, 
was inhabited by Aryan tribes, which had claimed inde- 
pendence of Assyria but little more than a century. The 
founder of Median greatness, who first united these tribes 
into one kingdom, was Cyax'ares, the joint-conqueror of 
Nineveh with Nabopolas'sar. He is said to have been the 
first Asiatic who properly organized an army, separating 
cavalry, spearmen, and archers into distinct companies. 
Under his reign, and that of his son Asty'ages, Media rose 
rapidly in wealth and importance. Extreme luxury took 
the place of rude manners and simple dress ; and their 
passion for hunting was all that remained of the hardy 
Medes in the jeweled courtiers of King Astyages. At this 
point the Persians, a kindred but subject nation, gained the 
supremacy, by reason of their brave and manly character. 



f4 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



•■'*/"";"';S;w<|j/ 



SLACK ss. 













V 




Mai' 1. 



17. Babylonia. — Babylon, on the contrary, was the 
seat of one of the oldest Asiatic states, long celebrated 
for wealth, luxury, and learning. The wonderful clear- 
ness of the air o\er the plain of the Euphrates early 
attracted attention to a study of the stars. Observations 
were carefully recorded, and tables still existing prove the 
]jainstaking skill of the Babylonian astronomers. They 
measured time by sun dials, and were the inventors of 
other astronomical instruments. 

18. After his country had been for 500 years subject 
to the Assyrian Empire (^ 9. />.), Nabonas'sar, a Baby- 
lonian general, set up an independent kingdom. But the 
fifth king of his line was taken captive by Sargon (§13); 
and for nearly a century the country was again ruled by 
Assyrian viceroys, though always ready to revolt. Fearing 
a double attack, from the north and south, which had 
been planned by the Medes, the last Assyrian king sent 
his general, Nabopolas'sar, to defend Babylon. But Nabo- 
polassar turned traitor ; he allied himself with Cya.xares, 
and led a Babylonian army to the siege of Nineveh 



NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 1 5 



(§16). In the division of the spoils, which followed the 
capture of the great city, Nabopolassar received Susiana, 
Babylonia, and Chaldrea, with all Syria even to the bor- 
ders of Egypt ; while Assyria proper was added to the 
dominion of Cyaxares. 

ig. B. C. 604-561. Nebuchadnez'zar, the second Baby- 
lonian king of this line, was one of the greatest monarchs 
whom the whole world has seen. By his victories over 
Egypt, Phoenicia, and Palestine, he reigned from the Med- 
iterranean to the Indus. The royal descendants of David 
ate the bitter bread of captivity at his table in Babylon 
(2 Kings xxiv : 10-16, and xxv : 6, 7, 27-30). He adorned 
his capital with the celebrated Hanging Gardens, and pro- 
tected it by walls of enormous thickness, while he en- 
riched the whole country by canals and reservoirs, which 
distributed the waters of the Euphrates over its vast and 
fertile plain. 

20. Babylonia became preeminent in industrial arts ; 
and merchants from all parts of the world thronged her 
markets. There they found delicate muslins and linens, 
and magnificent carpets from the Babylonian looms, as 
well as fine wool from Cashmere ; pearls from the Persian 
Gulf: diamonds and perfumes from India; bronzes and 
musical instruments from Phoenicia. The amazing fertility 
of the Babylonian soil — probably the richest on the globe 
— afforded abundance of barley and dates for even the 
poorest people, while the rich enjoyed every luxury which 
the ancient world could l)oast. 

21. At the height of his grandeur, Nebuchadnezzar was 
suddenly cast out from the society of men, and for seven 
years fed with beasts. His pride being humbled, his 
reason returned; and, acknowledging the supremacy of the 
Most High, he resumed the "excellent majest)- " of his 
kingly state (Daniel iv : 24-36). After a reign of 43 years, 
Nebuchadnezzar died, and with him ended the real great- 



i6 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



ness of his kingdom. Under Nabona'dius, the fourth of 
his successors, and the crown-prince Belshaz'zar, Babylon 
was taken by Cyrus, B. C. 538, and its whole territory was 
added to the Medo-Persian Empire. 

Describe, from Map I, the Rivers Tigris, Euphrates, Nile. 

Point out Chaldaea, Babylonia, Media, Assyria. Nineveh, Baby- 
lon, Raphia. 

Read Daniel i-v. Jeremiah xxvii : 5-8. Kawlinson's Five Ancient 
Eastern Monarchies. Herodotus, Volume I. Heeren's Asiatic Re- 
searches. 



Children of Sheni. 


Childi-en of Ham. 


Children of Japhet. 


Assyrians 


Chaldseans 


1 
1 

1 


Hindus 






Asiatic Aryans 

1 


Medes and 

Persians 

Bactrians. 


Hebrews 


Phoenicians * 


1 


Greeks 
Romans 






European Aryans 


■ Celts, 
Germans 


Arabs 


Egyptians 




. Slavonians. 



•■■The language of the Phoenicians was Semitic, though they were 
descended from Canaan, son of Ham. 



NOTES. 

1. These great migrations occurred some centuries before the begin- 
nings of connected history. Their order may be traced by comparing 
the languages of the several nations, and the names they gtive to 
mountains and rivers on their routes. Thus the Ap-en-uines and the 
C-evennes are memorials of tlie same people that named Ben Lomond 
and Ben Nevis. These were the Celtg, who at one time occupied a great 
part of Central and Western Europe, and were the ancestors of the 
Bretons of France, as well as of the inhabitants of Ireland, Wales, Corn- 
wall, and the Highlands of Scotland. Prof. Fiske says: 

"In vei'y recent times — probably not more tlian twenty centuries 
before Christ — Europe was invaded by a new race of men, coming from 
Central Asia. These were the Aryans, a race tall and massive in stat- 
ure . . . with round and broad skulls, with powerful jaws and promi- 



NO TES. 1 7 



nent eye-bi'ows, with faces rather square or angular than oval, with 
fair, ruddy complexions and blue eyes, and red or flaxen hair. Of these, 
the earliest that came may perhaps have been the Latin tribes, with 
the Dorians and lonians; but the first that made their way througli 
Western Europe to the .shores of the Atlantic were the Gael or true 
Celts. After these came the Cymry; then the Teutons; and finally— in 
very recent times, near the beginning of the Christian ora— tlie Slavs. 
These Aryan invaders were furtlier advanced in civili/.atiun than the 
Iberians, who had so long inhabited Europe. They unde'.stood the arts 
which the latter understooil, and, besides all this, they had learned 
how to work metals; and their invasion of Europe marks the begin- 
ning of what archtei)lo;;ists call the Bronze Age, when tools and weapons 
were no longer made Of polished stones, but were wrought from an 
alloy of copper and tin. The great blonde Aryans every-where over- 
came the small brunette Iberians; but instead of one race exterminating 
or expelling the other, the two races every where became commingled 
in various proportions. In Greece, southern Italy, Spain, and southern 
France, where the Iberians were most numerous as compared with the 
Aryan invaders, the people are still mainly small In stature and dark 
in complexion. In Russia and Scandinavia, where there were very few^ 
Iberians, the people show the purity of their Aryan descent in their fair 
complexion and large stature; wliile in northern Italy and northern 
France, in Germany and the Britisn Islands, the Iberian and Aryan 
statures and complexions are intermingled in endless variety, ='—Jb/m 
Fiske, in Atlantic Monthly, May, 1882. 

2. The three great men of the earliest Chaldsean Empire were Nim- 
rod,.the founder; Urukh, the builder; and Chedor-laomer, the conqueror. 
The' latter, "having extended his dominion o%'er Babylonia and the ad- 
joining regions, marched an army a distance of 1200 miles, from the 
shores of tlie Persian Gulf to the Dead Sea, and held Palestine and Syria 
in subjection for twelve years, thus effecting conquests which were not 
again made from the same quarter till the time of Nebuchadnezzar, 
fifteen or sixteen hundred years afterwards." He is "the forerunner 
<and prototype of all those great Oriental conquerors who, from time to 
time, have built up vast empires in Asia, out of heterogeneous materi- 
als, which have, in a longer or shorter space, successively crumbled to 
decay." — Read Gen. xiv. Rawlinson's ^'■Ancient Ea-stern Monarchies.''^ 

Beside the brief mention in the Bible, the only authorities for this 
early period are the inscriptions stamped on bricks, belonging to widel.v 
separated periods, and the fragments of the three books of Berosus, 
whicli were doubtless made fnjm records existing in his time. 

Berosus was a priest of Bel, and was living in Babylon at the time 
of its conquest by Alexindcr [\WD. He wrote in Greek; his works are 
known only by the quotations from them- in Eusebius and other his- 
torians, but these have been strikingly verified by inscriptions brought 
to light within a few ye^irs. His story of tlie Deluge is the same as the 
one found on Assyrian tablets. His table of Babylonian Dynasties is 
perhaps the most valuable of the fragments. The number of years as- 
signed to the first dynasty, is, of course, not to be believed any more 
than the still wilder statement that the 132,000 years preceding the del- 
uge comprised the reigns of only ten kings. The last of tb.ese kings 
was Sisuthrus, the hero of the flood. 

The following is the order of Dynasties after the Deluge, according 
to Berosus : 



I m 


Chaldsean 


kings 


reigned 


34,080 


years. 










II 8 


Median 






224 


" 


comnrencing 


B. 


C. 


2458. 


III 11 


Chaldsean 






258 


" 








22.34. 


IV 49 


Chaldsean 






4.58 


" 








1976. 


V 9 


Arabian 






24.5 


" 








1518. 


VI 45 


Assyrian 






526 


" 








1273. 


VII 8 


Assj'rian 






122 


" 








747. 


/HI 6 


Chaldsean 






87 


" 








625. 




Persian Conquest. 














538. 



3. Of the buildings of ancient Babylon, now to be seen only in ruins. 
Prof. Rawlinson says: "Rude and inartificial in their idea and general 
construction, without architectural embellishment, without varictv, with- 
Hist,— 2. 



THE AXCIENT WORLD. 



out any beauty of form, they yet affect men by their mere mass, pro- 
ducing a direct impression of subliniity, and at the same time arousing 
a sentiment of wonder at tlie indomitable perseverance which, from 
materials so unpromising, could produce sucli gigantic results. In 
their original condition, when they were adorned with color, with a 
lavish display of the precious metals, with pictured representations of 
human life, and perhaps with statuai-y of a rough kind, they must 
have added to the impression produced by size a sense of richness and 
barbaric magnificence. The African spirit, which loves gaudy hues and 
costly ornament, was still strong among the Babylonians, even after 
they had been Hemitized ; and, by the side of Assyria, her colder and 
moie correct northern sister, Babylonia showed herself a true child of 
the South,— rich, glowing, careless of the laws of taste, bent on jn-ovok- 
ing admiration by the dazzling brilliancy of her appearance." — Anc. 
East. Monarchies, II, 557. 

4. The stories of the mythical 8emiramis were told by the Greek 
physician, Ctesias, who heard them at the court of Artaxerxes Mnemon 
l}jA), king of Persia. Now the Persian kings, who claimed to be the 
heirs of the Assyrian Empire, were flattered by whatever enhanced the 
greatness and glory of their predecessors. They were quite willing, 
tlierefore, to believe that Ninus, the suiiposed founder of Nineveh, and 
Semiramis, tlie reputed builder (>f Babylon, had extended their joint 
sway over all the lands from the IMcditerraneau to the Indus. 

F. Lenormant remarks (in Anc. Hist, vf the East, I, 367): "Such is the 
legend that Ctesias first related to the (Jfeeks. We repeat that there is 
not one word of truth in it; the Assyrian monuments contradict it at 
all points. Such personages as Ninus and Semiramis belong in no way 
to real history; they never existed in fact. Ninus, as the name clearly 
indicates, is only a personilii ation of the whole history of the city of 
Nineveh, and of all its power. ... So all the useful or gigantic 
works, whatever their origin, executed at difierent periods by various 
Asiatic sovereigns have contributed to the glory of the name of Semir- 
amis. To her have been attributed all the buildings of Babylon, from 
the Tower of Babel, identical with the Temple of Bel, to those of the 
age of Nelmchadnezzar and his successors." 

Herodotus, who li\ed B. C. 484-108 (see §150), had never heard of the 
mythical Semiramis, but he mentions a real queen of that name as 
ha'viiig "raised magnificent embankments to restrain the river Eu- 
phrates, which, till then, used lo overflow and flood the whole countrj^ 
around Babylon." This was the Sammuramit mentioned in the text, 
who seems 'to have been a descendant of the old Babylonian kings, 
married to a king of Assvria, who had thus strengthened his authority 
over the discontented provinces In the Euphrates Valley. To please 
them, all royal acts in that -region were done in her name. The his- 
torian above quoted calls this royal i)air, " the Ferdinand and Isabella 
of Mesopotamia." See gti!.'}. 

5. Baphia was on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, between Gaza 
and the "River of Egvpt." The battle is described as "the first com- 
bat between the two'great powers of Asia and Africa." Shebek and 
the Egyptian forces were i)ut to flight, while the Philistine prince was 
carried" ca lit ive to Assvria. "The battle of Raphia foreshadowed truly 
enough the position which Egvpt would hold among the nations tiom 
the time that she ceased to be isolated, and was forced to enter upon 
the struggle for preeminence, and even for existence, with the great 
kingdoms of the neighboring continent. With rare and brief excep- 
tions. Egypt has, from the time of Sargon, succumbed to the superior 
might of whatever power has been dominent in western Asia, owning 
it for lord, and submitting, with a good or a bad grace, to a position in- 
volving a greater or less degree of dependence. Tributary to the later 
Assyrian princes, and again probably to Nebuchadnezzar, she had 
scarcely recovered her independence when she fell under the domin- 
ion of' Persia. Never successful, notwithstanding all her struggles, in 
thoroughly shaking off this bated yoke, slie did but exchange her Per- 
sian for Greek masters when the emj^ire of Cyrus ])erislied. Since then 
Greeks [? 101], Romans [5 •J3!!], Saracens [ji 299], and Turks [i 7!i:l] have each, 
in their turn, been masters of the Egyptian race, which has paid the 
usual penalty of precocity in the early exhaustion of its powers."— iJau;- 
linson^s Anc. E. Mon. Ill, 1-15. 



CHAPTER II. 

SMALLER ASIATIC STATES. 




hcenicia. — The narrow strip of land between Mt. 
Lebanon and the sea held some of the most im- 
portant communities of early times. They were not a 
nation, but a mere cluster of commercial cities/ of which 
Tyre and Sidon were the chief. Now and then some 
great danger led them to form a league ; but usually they 
were only united by a common language and religion, 
each city having its king or judge, who was also its high- 
priest. The name Phoenicians was given them by the 
Greeks. They called themselves Canaanites, and were of 
the same race as the tribes expelled or conquered by the 
Hebrews. 

23. The importance of Phoenicia was owing to her 
wonderful maritime enterprise. The Mediterranean and 
western Atlantic, the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian 
Ocean, all were highways for her ships, and their coasts 
and islands were dotted with her colonies. In her markets 
might be found silver from Spain, tin from Britain, and 
amber from the Baltic; gold and apes from Africa; pearls, 

(19) 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



rubies, and diamonds from India and Ceylon; no less 
than engraved seals from Babylon; copper and horses 
from Armenia; oil, honey, and balm from Palestine; wine 
and white wool from Damascus; lambs and kids from the 
the Bedouin Arabs; and embroidered linen from Egypt. 
In return, the gold, silver, bronze, and glass-wares of the 
Phoinicians, and the precious dye known as Tyrian purple, 
found great favor in foreign markets. 

24. Penetrating the remotest corners of the ancient 
world, the Phoenicians were carriers of ideas as Avell as of 
merchandize. Our greatest debt to them is the alphabet 
(^8). They were not inventors either in art or literature, 
nor were they inspired, like the Greeks, with a love of 
freedom. So long as trade flourished, they were content 
to pay tribute to Assyria, or to lend their ships and sailors 
to the Pharaohs. This is true especially of Sidon and the 
smaller cities. Tyre withstood three memorable sieges: 
one of five years by Sargon, B. C. 720-715; another of 
thirteen years by Nebuchadnezzar, and a third by Alex- 
ander of Macedon (B. C. 333, 332), after which 8,000 of 
her ])eo])le were slain, and 30,000 sold into slavery. The 
second of these sieges is celebrated in the Hebrew Script- 
ures (Ezekiel xxvi-.xxviii). The bravery of the Tyrians 
probably secured favorable terms, for while a great num- 
ber sailed away with their families and goods to Carthage, 
others removed to an island half a mile from the main- 
land, and soon made New Tyre richer than the Old. 

25. When Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was overthrown, 
the Phoenicians submitted to Cyrus, and their ships made 
the principal part of the Persian fleets. They brought cedar 
wood from Lebanon to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, 
as their forefathers had done in the days of Solomon and 
Hiram (i Kings v: 6-18. Ezra iii : 7). 

26. Syria. — The most important Syrian state had its 
seat at Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world. 



ASIA MINOR. 



It alone was able to hold out against David and Solomon, 
who reigned over all th-e remaining country from the 
Mediterranean to the Euphrates ; but three centuries later 
it became subject to the Assyrian kings. Other Syrian 
nations were the Hamathites, in the valley of the Orontes; 
the northern and warlike Hittites, whose chief city was 
Carchemish; and the southern Hittites, a peaceable trading 
people near the Dead Sea. 

27. Asia Minor. — Probably the earliest inhabitants of 
Asia Minor were the F/irygiaiis, a hardy race of farmers 
and vine-dressers, who had come from Armenia and 
brought thence a tradition of the Flood. Later came the 
Cappadocians, also sons of Japhet (§6), who crowded the 
Phrygians westward of the River Halys; then the T/iraciaiis, 
who took possession of the north-western coast, to which 
they gave the name Bithynia, from one of their tribes. 
The "brave, shield-bearing Paphlagotiiaiis''' occupied the 
rest of the Euxine coast. A mixed population of Aryans 
and Shemites inhabited Lycia, Pamphylia, and Cilicia on 
the southern shore ; while the borders of the yEgean were 
very early colonized by Greeks. 

28. Among all these nations, Lydid^ became supreme 
under its last five kings, who ruled B. C. 694-546. In 
the time of Ardys, the second of these kings, occurred 
one of those great movements of the northern barbarians, 
which have been mentioned in i^2. The Cimmerians 
(Crimeans) of southern Russia, ancestors of the modern 
Cossacks, swarmed over Asia Minor, captured Sardis, the 
Lydian capital, and ravaged all the western provinces. 
Successive waves of the same great tide of migration 
spread through Italy; "another, taking a more northerly 
direction, reached the western coast of Britain, where the 
Ci7///;r, their descendants, still live. 

29. Croesus, the fifth and last king of Lydia, was noted 
for his enormous wealth.'^ Having become master of all 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



Asia Minor and the Isles of Greece, he leagued himself 
with the great' empires of Egypt and Babylon, to resist 
the Persian power, which was then becoming formidable. 
His efforts were vain; having fought one battle in Cappa- 
docia, Cyrus marched swiftly upon Sardis, defeated and 
captured its king, and made Lydia a province of the 
Persian Empire. 




Map 2. Asia Minor. 

Point out, on Maps i and 2, the following countries and cities: 

Phivijicia — Sidon, Tyre, Berytus. 

Syiia — Damascus, Hamath, Carchemish. River Orontes. 

Asia Minor — Phrygia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Lycia, 
Pamphylia, Cilicia, Lydia, Sardis. River Halys. Bound Asia Minor. 

Read Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, Vol. II, pp. 402-412, 444; 
Vol. Ill, 51-53, 392. Herodotus, Book I, j} i ; III, ^19; IV, ^,42; 
V, §58. Grote's History of Greece, Chapters XVII, XVIII, XXXII. 



NOTES. 23 



NOTES. 

1. Sidon was the oldest of these cities, and its people are said to 
have been the first to abandon the wandering ways of their ancestors, 
and, bullilins )mts l)y the sra, find their subsistence in its waters. The 
name 8i(hini<iiis meant jislicrmen. But the descendants of nomads by 
land soon Ijftouk tljeniM'lxcs to wider wanderings by sea. Their first 
ventures were in quest of the little purple fish, each one of which af- 
forded a single drop of the precious coloring matter with which the 
costliest cloths were dyed. "All the coasts of the ^gean were ex- 
amined by means of divers and pointer-dogs; and probably nothing 
prodwced so immediate a contact between the old and new world of 
antiquity as the insignificant muscle in question." As the fish could 
not be transported to any distance, factories were established at vari- 
ous points on the Greek islands and coasts, and even in southern Italy. 

Timber was cut and ships V>uilt wherever a safe harbor could be 
found in the neighborhood of forests, for in those early days there was 
no other maritime power to interfere. The half-savage natives of Sicily, 
Corsica, and Sardinia, were glad to exchange the wild products of their 
Islands for eastern wares, and gained at the market fairs of the Phoe- 
nicians some ideas of numbers, weights, and measures. 

It was, however, the discovery of the precious metals in Spain that 
made the Tyrians find Sidonians the wealthiest of all the nations of 
antiquity. The Tarshish of the Old Testament— which the Greeks called 
Tai'tessus — included the modern provinces o£ Andalusia and Murcia. 
"The first traders to these fortnuiite shores were said to have replaced 
their lea<len anchors witli masses of silver, rather than abandon any of 
the precious substance lavishly Hung at their feet in exchange for car- 
goes of slight intrinsic value. The valleys of the Guadiana and Gua- 
dalquivir were strewn with nuggets of silver. The mountains from 
which those rivers flowed, yielded iron, copper, and lead. Gold, derived 
from the washings of the Tagus, and tin, extracted from the granite of 
Galicia, were brought by long lines of inland traffic to the general 
mart.'' 

Spain was, in its turn, the starting-point for yet more distant voya- 
ges. " From Tartessus these hardy navigators reached the shores of Brit- 
ain in search of tin, and penetrated the Baltic in search of amber. 
From Tartessus they colonized — to the number, as traditionally re- 
ported, of three hundred — the peninsulas and islands in which Atlas 
sinks beneath the Atlantic." 

2. The Lydians were probably a Semitic people, who had pushed 
westward from the Euphrates Valley to the "fertile lowlands of the 
river Hermus," where they became mingled with the earlier settlers of 
the country. Prof. Curtius.says {llht. of Greece, I, 86): "As long as we 
remain unacquainted with tlic spoken and written language of the 
Lydians, it will be impossible to define with any accuracy the mixture of 
peoples which here took place. But speaking generally, there is no doubt 
of the double relationship of this people, and of its consequent important 
l>lace In civilization among the groups of the nations of Asia Minor. 
The Lydians became on land, as the Phoenicians by sea, the mediators 
between Hellas and Anterior Asia. As a people whose wits had been 
at an early period sharpened by intercourse with the rest of the world, 
full of enterprise and engaged in the pursuits both of commerce and 
of domestic industry, they were the first who knew how to take every 
advantage of the treasures of the valley of the Hermus. At the base of 
Trnolus they discovered, in the sand of the deciduous rivulets, the 
seemingly insignificant gold dust, and thus, in the vicinity of the 
Greeks, brought to light tihe power of gold, so infinitely important, so 
fatal, for Greek history. The Lydians reckoned three epochs under three 
generations of rulers, the first of which dcnvccl its source from Atys, a 
god belonging to the mythic circle of the ^Mother of the mountains, 
whose worship filled with its tumultuous music all the highlands of 
Lydla and Pliry<;ia. Their second dynasty, the Lydians, led back to a 
Heracles, wliom they called the son of Ninus. Independently of this 
myth, Ctesias narrated to the Greeks that King Ninus [see note 4, Ch. 
1,] liad conquered Phrygia, tlie Troad, and Lydia. Plato, too, had heard 
of the power of the Ninevites as supreme in Asia Minor at the time of 



24 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



the Trojan War." It appears, therefore, thai, • through ti\e centuries or 
thereabouts, the Lydian empu'e was a state iu vassalage to Xineveh on 
the Tigris." The third dynasty is the one mentioned in our text. 

3. "As rich as Croesus" was tlie proverbial exi^ression in ancient 
times for enormous wealth; but the last Lydian king was not less cele- 
brated for his misfortunes. In Rawlinson's Herodotus, I, 368, we learn 
how his story was regarded by the Greeks. "They had seen the rapid 
rise and growtli of a magnificent empire upon their borders, and haii 
felt its irresistible might in opposition to themselves; they had been 
dazzled by the lavish display of a wealth, exceeding all that their poets 
had ever fabled of Colchis or Hesperia; they had no doubt shared in 
the confident expectation of further conquests with which the warrior- 
prince, at the head of his unvanquished bands, had crossed the Halys 
to attack his unknown enemy. And they had been spectators of the 
result. Within a few weeks the prosperous and imissant monarch, 
master of untold treasures, ruler over thirteen nations, lord of all Asia 
from the Halys to the sea, was a captive and a Iieggar, the miserable 
dependant upon the will of a despot whose anger he had provoked. 
Such a catastrophe had in it something peculiarly calculated to excite 
the feelings of the Greeks. Accordingly, the story of Crcesus seems to 
have become to the romancers of the period what the old her<uc tale 
of CEdipus was to the tragedian, the type of human instabilitv." 

The following is an abridgment of the tale told by Herodotu's: When 
Solon, the Athenian, was on his travels (see § 112, and note), partly to 
gain knowledge, but chiefly to rid himself of the questions and com- 
plaints of the Athenians concerning the laws that he had made for 
them, he came to the Lydian court at Sardis. Croesus entertained him 
with great splendor; and after the wise man had seen the gold and 
jewels of his treasuries, thus addressed him: "Stranger of Athens, we 
have heard much of thy wisdorh and of thy travels through mnny 
lands. I am curious, therefore, to inquire of thee wliom of all the ineii 
that thou hast seen, thou deeinest the most happy?" This he asked, 
because he thought himself the happiest of mortals; but Solon an- 
swered him without flattery: "Tellus, of Athens. Sire." To the sharp 
inquiry of Crcesus he replied that Tellus was happiest because his coun- 
try was prosperous, his children beaixtiful and good, and his death glo- 
rious. Hoping still for the second place, Crcesus asked whom Solon 
ranked next in happiness. Then he heard the names of two strong 
young Greeks who had gained prizes in the games (§102). Their mother 
was one day going to the temple, and, the oxen not arriving in time, 
-they yoked themselves to her car, and drew her thus Ave and forty 
furlongs. The crowd assembled at the temple, praised the strength and 
filial devotion of the youths, and their mother, overjoyed at the honor 
they had won, prayed" ;doud that the goddess would" reward them witli 
the highest blessing that mortals could attain. They fell asleep in the 
temple, and never woke again. 

Croesus then angrily demanded whether he was not to be numbered 
among the ha]i]iy ones of earth. Solon calmly answered, that so many 
are the changes of life— every day bringing some new circumstance— no 
man could be called really happy until his life was ended. 

Croesus let his visitor (iepart without the customary gifts, displeased 
that he could win no flattery. . . . Afterward the king was visited 
by many sorrows, ending with the great calamity which made Cyrus 
the master of his kingdom. Croesus himself was placed upon a funeral 
pile, to be burnt alive with fourteen noble Lj'dinn youth. Now it en- 
tered his mind that there was a divine warning in the words that had 
come to him from the lips of Solon: 'No one while he lives is happy.' 
When this thought struck him, he fetched a long brenth, and, breaking 
his deep silence, groaned furth, "O Solon, Solon, Solon!" 

('yrus, who was closelj' watching the scene— perhaps not really in- 
tending to mnke so cruel an end of his captive— bade his interpreters 
ask what god or man it was whom the king had thus invoked in his 
distress. Crcesus replied that it was a man with whom he wished that 
every monarch might be acquainted, and told of the visit of the serene 
philosopher whom he had been unable to dazzle by his splendor. Cy- 
rus took the lesson to his own heart, and, admiring the wisdom of 
Crcesus in his self-condemnation, made the vanquished king his most 
honored friend and counselor. 




CHAPTER III. 

THE HEBREWS. 

'ROM the Shemites east of the 
Euphrates, God called Abraham 
to remove westward and become 
the founder of a great nation. 
The story of this people — com- 
prising its education out of heathenism 
into the belief in One God, and the suc- 
cessive captivities which placed it at 
school in the great empires of Egypt and 
Babylonia just at the periods of their 
highest civilization — is among the most 
wonderful records in ancient history. 

31. Driven by famine into Egypt, 
tlie descendants of Abraham became 
slaves, and remained in bondage until 

Jewish High-Priest. ,1 1 j 1 ^ r 1 

■^ they numbered about 3,000,000 of souls. 

Then Moses arose — trained in all the "learning of the 
Egyptians" — to be the liberator, leader, and lawgiver of 
his people. Crossing the Red Sea, they were led to and fro 
in the desert forty years, receiving the Divine Law from 
Mt. Sinai, and suffering many penalties for their cowardice 
and disobedience, until most of those who had been slaves 
were dead. Then Joshua, Moses' successor, led their chil- 
dren into the Promised Land, which lay mainly between the 
Jordan and the Mediterranean.^ By a remarkable series of 
victories, the Canaanites were subdued or driven out, and 
the wanderers of the desert then became tillers of the soil. 

32. The Judges. — After Joshua's death, the people 
departed from the true faith, and were often subdued by 

(25) 



2 6 THE ANCIEXT WORLD. 

their heathen neighbors. From time to time a "Judge" 
arose, and dehvered them from their oppressors ; but, when 
he was dead, "every man did that which was right in his 
own eyes," until a new calamity called for a new dehver- 
ance (Judges ii : 10-19). 

33. The Monarchy. — At length they demanded a 
king. Saul was chosen, and by a series of successful 
wars established the independence of Israel. But he lost 
the favor of God by disobedience, and David was anointed 
as his successor. The Philistines invaded the country; 
Saul and his sons were slain, and David was crowned at 
Hebron. For seven years Saul's only surviving son ruled 
nominally over eleven tribes; but on his death David be- 
came king of the whole country. 

34. He made Jerusalem his capital, and the home of 
the Hebrew worship. David was a great conqueror, and 
his kingdom extended from the borders of Egypt to the 
Euphrates. But his fame as a sacred poet is greater than 
as king or warrior. In lyrical strains, that have never 
been equaled for purity and elevation, he sang the victory 
of the soul that trusts in God. His old age was clouded 
with sorrow for the misconduct of his sons. But the suc- 
cessive rebellions of Ab'salom and Adoni'jah were ended by 
the death of the offenders, and Solomon, David's favorite 
son, came peacefully to the throne. 

35. Under Solomon, Israel first became a commercial 
nation. The king kept fleets of merchant vessels in the 
Red Sea and the Mediterranean, by means of which the 
luxuries of Europe, Asia, and Africa were brought to 
Jerusalem. His greatest work was the building of the 
Temple. Its dedication (B. C. 1004) was so important an 
event as to make the beginning of Hebrew chronology. 
(Read i Kings viii.) Solomon's wisdom surpassed that of 
all the children of the East and of Egypt (i Kings iii : 5- 
14; iv : 29-34; x: 23, 24); but in old age his heart was 



THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. 27 



corrupted by luxury and power. His people were heavily 
taxed to maintain his court and his great public works. 
After his death, ten tribes revolted against Rehoboam, his 
son, and established the rival kingdom of Israel. 

36. Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, set up an idol- 
atrous worship, in order to wean his people from Jerusalem 
and the House of David. His wicked plan succeeded, 
and for centuries the only witnesses to the true God were 
solitary prophets (i Kings xvi : 1-3: xvii-xix). The nine- 
teen kings of Israel belonged to nine different families, 
and many of them died by violence. The later kings had 
wars with Assyria, wsliich ended in the o\erthrow of their 
kingdom, and the captivity of their people. The land 
was left so desolate that wild beasts prowled in the cities, 
until colonists were brought from beyond the Euphrates 
to replace the captive Israelites. (§12.). 

37. The kingdom of Judah remained loyal to the 
House of David; and, notwithstanding its exposed posi- 
tion between the great warring empires of Egypt and 
Assyria, it kept its independent existence nearly a century 
and a half longer than Israel. Of the eighteen kings who 
reigned over Judah alone, eight "did right in the sight 
of the Lord." The rest were idolaters. The last of the 
good kings, Josiah, repaired the temple and discovered 
the Book of the Law, which had long been lost. A 
solemn Passover was now held (B. C. 623), at which not 
only the men of Judah but all true believers who were left 
in the desolate land of Israel were present, and renewed 
their allegiance to the God of their fathers. 

38. During this reign, Palestine had its share in the 
Scythian invasions^ (§ 15), and a still greater calamity 
marked its close. Josiah was slain in battle (2 Chron. 
XXXV : 20-27). His son Ijecame a captive in Babylon, 
but the next king, Zedekiah, revolted and allied himself 
with Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar then besieged and took Jeru- 



THE AAXIENT WORLD. 



saleni, destroyed the Temple, and carried all its treasures, 
with the king and the whole nation, away to Babylon. 
The land was desolate, and Jewish history ceased, B. C. 
586, for fifty years. 

39. The empire of Nebuchadnezzar was then in its 
turn overthrown by the Persians, who, like the Jews, 
worshiped one God, and abhorred idolatry. Their great 
king, Cyrus, whom the Hebrew prophets had long ago 
described as the deliverer of their nation (Isa. xliv : 28— 
xlv : 4), B. C. 536, ordered the return of the Jews to their 
own land, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple. 
The neighboring heathen tribes violently opposed the 
work ; but Ar'taxerx'es, the great-grandson of Cyrus, con- 
ferred great powers on Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, the 
last of whom completed the defenses of Jerusalem. I£zra, 
meanwhile, collected and edited the sacred books which 
make the Old Testament. 

40. After his death, and Nehemiah's departure, the old 
troubles returned. Even the High Priest pro\ed a traitor; 
and the Sabbath was profaned by common traffic and 
labor. Nehemiah came back from Persia as a royal gov- 
ernor, reformed these abuses, and expelled the new high- 
priest because he had married ■ a pagan woman. There- 
upon, her father built a rival temple^ upon Mt. Gerizim, in 
Samaria, for the exiled priest; and there to this day the 
rites of Hebrew worship are maintained. But "the Jews 
had no dealings with the Samaritans;" indeed, at this 
|)oint, the mixture of Jewish and pagan practices wholly 
ceased. 

■ Point oiU, on Map T, Jerusalem, the Red Sea, the River Euphrates. 
NoTK. — The story of the Hebrews — briefly outlined in this chapter 
— is told in the histf)rical books of the Old Testament, from Genesis to 
Esther, and illustrated by the Psalms and Prophecies. Read, beside, 
Josephus' "Antiquities,"' Milman's "History of the Jews,"' and Stan- 
ley's "Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church." 



NOTES. 29 



NOTES. 

1. The narrow mountain region at the eastern end of tlie Mediterra- 
nean .Sea, wliicli formed tlie Promised Land of the Hebrews, is a country 
of the greatest interest aside from tlie remarliable liislory of wliicli it has 
been tlie scene. The following account is condensed from a volume on 
"'Sinai and Palestine," by the late Dean Stanley. 

"Between the great plains of Assyria and the shoresof the Mediterra- 
nean, a high mountain tract is interposed, reaching from the Bay of 
fssus to the Desert of Arabia. It is with the southern division that 
we are now concerned. From the summits of Lebanon flow four rivers 
of unequal magnitude, on which, at different times, have sprung up the 
four ruling powers of that portion of Asia. The northern River— the 
channel of life and civilization in the northern regions of Syria— is the 
Orontes, the river of the Greek Ivingdom of Autioch and .Seleucia [see 
fil(J8]. The western is the Litany, rising near Baalbee, and falling into 
the Mediterranean close to Tyre -the river of Phojnicia. The eastern is the 
modern Barada, the Abana or Pharpar of the Old Testament— the river 
of Damascus. The fourth and southern river, which rises in the point 
where Hermon splits into its two parallel ranges, is the River of Pales- 
tine, the Jordan. Its name signifies "the Descender," and it plunges 
clown so rapidly through its narrow gorge, that its end in the Dead Sea 
is thirteen hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean. The 
heat and fertility of the Jordan Valley make it a tangled wilderness of 
tropical vegetation, where lions from the neighboring desert shelter 
themselves. 

The total extent of the Holy Land was 180 miles from north to south, 
and about 50 from the Jordan to the western sea. The contrast between 
the littleness of Palestine and the vast e.x.tent of the empires which 
hung upon its northern and soutliern skirts, is rarely absent from the 
mind of the Prophetsand Psalmists. From almost every high point in 
the country, its whole breadtli is visible, from the long wall of the Moivb 
hills on the east, to the Mefliterranean on the west. Yet, by its natural 
outworks, the people were effectually "set apart" from the rest of the 
world. The deep cleft of the Jordan Valley, the hills to the eastward, 
and the desert, were their defenses against the great empires of Assyria 
and Babylonia. They were protected from Egyptian invasion by that 
"great and terrible wilderness," which rolled like a sea between the 
valley of the Nile and the valley of the Jordan, reaching up to the very 
frontier of their own land. The two accessible sides were the west and 
the north. But the west was only accessible by sea, and when Israel 
first settled in Palestine, the Mediterranean was* not yet the thorough- 
fare — it was rather tiie liountlary and the terror— of the eastern nations. 
It is true that from the north-western coast of Syria, the Phoenician 
cities sent forth their fleets. But they were the exception of the world, 
the discoverers, the first explorers of the unknown depths,— and, in their 
enterprises, Israel never joined. In strong contrast, too, with the coasts 
of Europe, and esi)eeially of Greece, Palestine has no indentations, no 
winding creeks, no deep havens, such as in ancient, even more than 
in modern times, were necessary for the invitation and protection of 
commercial enterprise. One long line, broken only by the bay of Acre, 
containing only three bad harbors, Joppa, Acre, and Caipha, is the in- 
hospitable front that Palestine ojjposed to the western world. On the 
northern frontier, the ranges of Lebanon formed two not insignilicant 
ramparts. But the gate between them was open, and through the long 
valley of Caele Syria, the hosts of Syrian and Assyrian conquerors ac- 
cordingly poured. 

Palestine, though now at the very outskirts of that tide of civiliza- 
tion which has swept far into the remotest west, was then the van- 
guard of the eastern, and, therefore, of the civilized world; and, more- 
over, stood midway between the two great seats of ancient empire, 
Babylon and Egypt. It was on the high road from one and the other 
of these mighty powers, the prize for which they contended, the battle- 
field on which they fought, — the high bridge over which they ascended 
and descended resijectively into the deep basins of the Nile and Eu- 
phrates. Its first appearance on the stage of history is as a halting-place 
for a wanderer from Mesopotamia, who " passed through the land," and 
"journeyed, going on still toward the south," and "went down into 



30 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

Eg5^pt." The first great struggle which that wanderer had to maintain, 
was against tlie liost of Ciiedorlaomer,* from Persia and from Babylon. 
The battle in whicli the latest hero of the Jewish monarchy perished, 
was to check the advance of an Egyptian king on his way to contest 
the empire of the then known world with the king of Assyria, at Car- 
chemish. The whole history of Palestine, between the retui'n from the 
Captivity and the Christian Era, is a contest between the "kings of the 
North and the kings of the South "—the descendants of Seleucus and 
the descendants of Ptolemy (see Ch. XI)— for the possession of the coun- 
try. And, when, at last, the West begins to rise as a new power on the 
horizon, Palestine, as the nearest point of contact between the two 
worlds, becomes the scene of the chief contlicts of Borne with Asia. 
There is no other country in the world which could exhibit the same 
confluence of associations, as that which is awakened by the rocks 
which overhang the crystal streams of the Dog River, where it rushes 
through the ravines of Lebanon into the Mediterranean 8ea; where, side 
by side, are to be seen the hieroglyphics of the great Rameses [§71], the 
cuneiform characters of Sennacherib [§13], and the Latin inscriptions 
of the Emperor Antoninus [5 254]. 

2. This " was the earliest recorded of those movements of the north- 
ern populntions, hid behind the long inountain-barriei-, which, under the 
name of Himalaya, Caucasus, Taurus, Hsemus, and the Alps, has been 
reared Ijy nature Ijetwecn the civilized and uncivilized races of the old 
world. Suddenly, above this boundary, appeared those strange, uncouth, 
fur-clad forms, hardly to be distinguished from their hoi'ses and their 
wagons, fierce as their own wolves or bears, sweeping toward the south- 
ern regions, which seemed to them their natural prey. The successive 
invasions of Parthians, Turks, Mongols in Asia [see B. II, Ch. VIII], of 
Gauls, Goths, ^'andals, Huns in Europe [I, Ch. XVIII], ' have,' it is well 
said, 'illustrated the law and made us familiar witli its operation. But 
there was a time in history before it had come into force, and when its 
very existence must have been unsuspected.' No wonder that now, 
when the vail was the first time rent asunder, all the ancient monarch- 
ies of the south,— Assyria, Babylon, Media, Egypt, even Greece and Asia 
Minor— stood aghast at the spectacle of these savage hordes rushing down 
on the seats of luxury and power. It must have been about the middle 
of Josiah's reign, that one division of them broke into Syria. They 
penetrated, on their way to Egypt, as far as the southern frontier of 
Palestine, and were then bought off by Psammetichus [^72], and re- 
tired after sacking the temple of Astarte, at Ascalon. One permanent 
trace of their passage they left as they scbured through the plain of 
Esdraelon. The old Canaanitish city of Bethshan, at the eastern ex- 
tremity of that plain, from them received the name which it bore 
throughout the Roman empire in the mouths of the Greeks, Scythopo- 
lis, 'the city of the Scythians.' ... In these tremendous forms, not 
without a prophetic sense of their vast importance, was hailed the first 
apparition of the future fathers of the coming northern world. Gog and 
Magog are the primeval names which, now first introduced, were re- 
vived in the Apocalypse as representatives of the vast barbarian tribes 
which threatened the empire of Rome, as that of Assyria had been 
threatened by the Scythians of old."— jSiaJite^, History of Jewish Church, 
II, 557. 

3. "There is, probably, no other locality in which the same worship 
has been sustained with so little cliange or interruption for so great a 
series of years, as that of this mountain, from Abraham to the present 
day. In their humble synagogue, at the foot of the mountain, the 
Samaritans still worship— the oldest and the smallest sect in the world. 
And up the side of the mountain, and on its long ridge, is to be traced 
the pathway by which they ascend to the sacred spots where they 
yearly celebrate, alone of all the Jewish race, the Paschal Sacrifice." — 
Stanley, Sinai and .Palestine, 236. 



* See Genesis xiv. Chodorlaomer was a king of Elam, between the 21st and 23d 
centuries B. C, who had made himself "master of the whole Tigro-Euphrates Valley. 
He had as vassals, Amraphel, king of Shinar, or Chaldea; Arioch, king of EUasar, the 
chief of the Assyrian cities of that time, .and Thargal [Tidal] king of nations; i.e., no- 
madic tribes of S.vthians or Turanians. — Lenormant, Ancient Hiitory qf the East, I, 352. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MEUO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 








^ ern 



Bas-Relief from Persepolis. 



Y the victories of Cyrus, 
the Aryan or Indo- 
Germanic race became 
predominant in West- 
Asia, and it has ever 
since filled a chief place in 
universal history. The Medes 
and Persians were united un- 
der one king ; but while the 
former had become enfeebled 
by luxury (§i6), the latter 
still kept their hardy habits. 
"To ride the horse, to draw 
the boAv, and to speak the 
truth," was the education of 
their noblemen. Their religion — the purest, probably, of 
unrevealed faiths — taught them a belief in one God, and 
an abhorrence of idols. The Medes, on the contrary, had 
abandoned the doctrines which they and the Persians had 
received from Zoroas'ter, ^ and, by contact with the Turan- 
ians, had adopted a gross form of Nature-worship. Fire 
was the chief object of their adoration. The Magi were 
their priests, without whose aid no man could pray, so 
elaborate were their religious rites. 

42. Cyrus, the Persian prince, spent many years of his 
youth at the court of Ecbat'ana, and gathered about him 
a party of the younger Medes, who at length revolted 
against Astyages and secured to their young chief the 
crown of the two kingdoms. No sooner was his power 

(30 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



confirmed at home, than a league of Babylon, Egypt, 
Lydia, and some Grecian states, demanded his attention 
abroad. He subdued Lydia (§29), and added all Asia 
Minor to his dominion ; then, turning eastward, he spent 
thirteen years in conc|uering the country between Media 
and Hindustan, including the populous provinces of Hyr- 
cania, Parthia, Bactria, etc. 

43. His greatest success was the siege and capture of 
Babylon. This great capital of Nebuchadnezzar was the 
strongest city of the ancient world. Its walls were 200 
cubits high, and fifty in thickness. The Euphrates flowed 
through the city, but its banks were guarded by walls 
and brazen gates, while a network of canals, sluices, and 
reservoirs, above and below Babylon, was so contrived 
that the whole country could be laid under water in case 
of an enemy's approach. 

44. Nevertheless, the city fell. Cyrus had turned off 
the waters of the Euphrates into a lake without the walls, 
leaving its usual bed dry. The crown-prince, Belshazzar, 
trusting in the strength of his defenses, left the river 
gates unguarded, while he and his courtiers were engaged 
in drunken revelry. Cyrus and his army entered the 
city; Belshazzar was slain at his palace gates; his father 
surrendered himself a ]jrisoner, and Babylon became the 
winter-capital of the Medo-Persian Empire.* 

45. Cyrus was killed in a war with the wandering tribes 
east of the Sea of Aral, and his son, Camby'ses, inherited 
his crown. He first took possession of Phoenicia and 
Cyprus, thus gaining fleets in the Mediterranean, and then 
proceeded with his father's plans for the conquest of 
Egy]:)t. He desired also to conquer Carthage, and e.xtend 



* Read the story in Daniel v. "Darius, the Median," was prob- 
ably the deposed king, Astyages {'^42), who was consoled for his lost 
kingdom by the rich satrapy of Babylon. 



REIGN OF DARIUS. 33 

his empire to the Atlantic, but the Phcenicians refused to 
serve against one of their own colonies (§24). His at- 
tempts upon the interior of Africa miserably failed. One 
army of 50,000 men was buried in the sands; another 
nearly perished of starvation. 

46. Cambyses enraged the Egyptians by ridiculing their 
worship, and stabbing their sacred calf with his own 
dagger. Their priests declared that he was smitten with 
madness, as a punishment for this act; but in truth his 
only insanity sprang from his unregulated passions. He 
had caused his only brother to be put to death. He now 
heard that the younger son of Cyrus had taken possession 
of the throne. This was, in fact, a Magian impostor, who 
happened to resemble the murdered prince ; but as the 
crime of Cambyses was a secret, every one believed that 
his brother was really reigning at Ecbatana. In the act 
of setting out for home, Cambyses was mortally wounded, 
and died bewailing his crimes and follies. 

47. The usurper meanwhile closed the Persian temples, 
stopped the rebuilding of that of the Hebrews (Ezra iv. 
17-24), and restored the corrupt Magianism (§41) which 
Cyrus had overthrown. The Persian nobles began to suspect 
him, and by a bold attack put an end to his life and reign. 

48. Dari'us Hystas'pes, cousin of Cyrus, then became 
king of the Medes and Persians, and proceeded to make 
a compact and well governed empire out of the many 
countries which Cyrus and Cambyses had conquered. The 
native kings were removed, and the 20 satrapies or prov^ 
inces, into which the empire was newly divided, were 
committed to Persian or Median governors. Each prov- 
ince had three chief officers : the satrap, who ruled in 
civil affairs; the i:;ciicra/, who controlled the army; and the 
royal secretary, who kept the king informed of all that was 
done. Neither of these could revolt without the others, 
and mutual jealousies kept them from combining. 

Hist— 3. 



34 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

49. Instead of levying immense and arbitrary contribu- 
tions at any time, like other Asiatic monarchs, the Great 
King recjuired from each province a regular yearly tribute 
according to its wealth. The satraps were permitted to 
support themselves out of the possessions of the people; 
but if convicted of extortion, they were sure to be pun- 
ished. Each satrap lived in royal magnificence; but the 
court of the Great King far surpassed those of the prov- 
inces. 15,000 persons fed daily at his expense; a great 
army guarded his person. Chief among these were the 
10,000 "Immortals," whose armor glittered with gold, and 
who were chosen from all the nation for their strength, 
stature, and beauty. 

50. Darius endeavored to reconcile the Persian religion 
with Median fire-worship, which better suited the ceremo- 
nious splendor of his court. The Magi accepted the chief- 
doctrines of Zoroaster, and were entrusted with the care 
of religious services. They kindled the sacred fires in 
the temples and on the summits of the mountains, and 
chanted hymns at the rising of the sun. They studied 
the starry heavens, and believed that they read the pur- 
poses of God in the motions of the planets, as well as in 
the interpretation of dreams (DaniSl ii : i-io). The edu- 
cation of princes was committed to them, and they became 
the most trusted councilors of the king. 

51. Darius conquered an important part of western India, 
increasing his revenues one third by its gold tribute; then 
turned his arms against the Scythians. Their incursions a 
century before had not been forgotten (^15); like a black 
thunder-cloud in the north they seemed always threatening 
the existence of his empire; and, moreover, Darius was 
now planning a conquest of Cireece, a movement which 
might easily be defeated by the wild tribes north of the 
Danube, unless they were first over-awed by his power. 
With an army of more than 700,000 men, he marched as 



BATTLE OF TIIERMOPYL^. 35 

far as the present Russian town of Voronej, and burnt a 
Greek trading station, then the only town existing on that 
vast, desolate plain. The barbarians avoided a battle ; 
having no setdements to defend, they only retired into 
remoter wildernesses ; but Uarius, returning in triumph 
two months after crossing the Danube, added to the num- 
ber of his subjects the "Scythians beyond the sea." One 
of his generals meanwhile conquered the Thracian coast, 
and extended the Persian power over Macedonia, which 
submitted to tribute and allegiance. 

52. The Asiatic Greeks soon afterward revolted, and 
their united forces surprised and burned Sardis. But 
Miletus, the chief of the Greek cities, and the leader of 
the revolt, was subdued in the sixth year of the war. 
The vengeance of Darius was then excited against the 
Athenians,^ who had aided their Asiatic brethren in rebellion 
(§109). His first expedition against European Greece 
was baffled by storms and the valor of the Thracians; the 
second was defeated by the Athenians in the battle of 
Mar'athon (§115). Before he could go in person to punish 
the Greeks, Darius^ died (B. C. 486). 

53. His son Xerx'es — probably the Ahasue'rus of the 
Book of Esther — spent seven years in arming and drilling 
recruits and providing stores of food; then, with more 
than 2,000,000 of fighting men, he crossed the 
Hellespont into Europe. A fleet of 1,200 first- 
class, and 3,000 smaller vessels, bearing another half million 
of men, attended him along the shore. At Thermopylae, 
a narrow pass between Mt. Qita and the sea, the Spartan 
king, Leon'idas, awaited him with 6,000 men. For several 
days this little band withstood the whole Persian host, 
which was then admitted to the pass only by the treachery 
of a Greek. Leonidas now dismissed all his force except 
300 Spartans and 400 Thespians, who fought until the last 
man but one was slain. 



36 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

54. Meanwhile, storm and battle had destroyed 600 
Persian ships; but Xerxes marched on, receiving the 
submission of the greater part of central Greece. He 
plundered and burnt Athens, and prepared for a decisive 
naval battle off the Isle of Sal'amis. Here the Greeks 
won a still more glorious victory than that of Marathon. 
Well acquainted with the narrow seas, they drove their 
brazen-pointed ships dexterously into the clumsy Persian 
galleys. From early dawn till night the combat raged, 
while Xerxes watched it from his throne on Mt. vEga'leos. 
At length, humbled and depressed, he withdrew his forces 
and marched for the Hellespont. 

55. His brother-in-law, Mardo'nius, remained with 300,- 
000 men in Thessaly, and was defeated and slain the 
next year in the battle of Plat?e'a. No Persian army was 
ever again seen in Greece, and for twelve years no Persian, 
sail appeared in the yEgean. Xerxes, having wrecked his 
youthful hopes by vain ambition, gave up his later years 
to idle luxury, and was murdered at last by two of his 
servants (B. C. 465). 

56. B. C. 465-425. During the forty years' reign of 
his son Ar'taxerx'es, the Long-handed, the power of the 
empire declined. Egypt and Syria revolted, with aid from 
the Athenians; and though the Persian power was reestab- 
lished, the king was unable to punish the rebels as Darius 
would have done. He acknowledged the freedom of the 
Asiatic Greeks, and promised not to visit their shores with 
either fleet or army. 

57. Three sons of Artaxerxes wore the crown in rapid 
succession, while the empire constantly became weaker. 
Under Darius H (B. C. 424-405), the queen, Parys'atis, 
ruled in the palace, and her cruel passions alienated those 
who should have been the best supports of the throne. 
Egypt threw off the Persian yoke. Cyrus, a younger son 
of Darius and Parysatis, was satrap of Phrygia, Lydia, 



ALEXANDER THE CREAT. 37 

and Cappadocia; but with his mother's aid he plotted for 
the possession of the whole empire. 

58. At this point Darius II died, and Artaxerxes II 
succeeded him. Cyrus hired an army of Spartans, whom 
he kept ignorant of his true designs; and, marching against 
his brother, was defeated and slain at Cunax'a. 

The Greeks who had been entrapped into the 
war were now in a perilous case,"* but Xen'ophon, whom 
they chose for one of their leaders, rescued them by a 
bold and successful movement toward the Black Sea. His 
story of the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand" is a wonder- 
ful record of hardships borne and dangers surmounted. 
Artaxerxes not only kept his kingdom, but he extended 
his power over the Greeks, in revenge for the aid which 
they had afforded his brother. 

59. B. C. 359 — 338. Artaxerxes III was a spirited and 
poAverful monarch, and under him Egypt became again a 
Persian province. After the short and insignificant reign 
of his son. Arses, Darius Codomannus, one of the best, 
but also the most unfortunate of the Persian 

kings, came to the throne. The Greeks had 
been nursing their revenge against the Persians for nearly 
200 years. In the young king Alexander, of Macedon, 
they had now a leader abler than Cyrus, and more am- 
bitious than Xerxes. 

60. Crossing the Hellespont with his 35,000 Greeks, 
Alexander defeated the Persians at the little river Granicus, 
and proceeded to set free all the cities of the western 
coast. At Issus, near the gates of Syria, he 

. • B. C. 333. 

first met Darius ; and the latter, with his half 
million of men, was utterly overthrown. After conquer- 
ing Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt, Alexander marched east- 
ward for the grand contest which was to decide the fate 
of Asia. The battle is named from Arbela, where the 
Persian stores were deposited, though it was 20 miles from 



3^ THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



the field. Darius had mustered more than a milHon of 
men, next to the Oreeks the finest soldiers in the world. 
He had chosen his groimd on a great plain, east of the 
Titrris, where his chariots and horsemen, as well as the 
enormous numbers of his foot-soldiers, could act with the 
greatest advantage. 

6i. Nevertheless, the Macedonian phalanx* proved in- 
vincible, as usual. Penetrating to the very presence of 
Darius, who was fighting bravely at the center of his 
army, they broke up the Persian lines, and the king be- 
came a fugitive. Two of his officers wished to betray him 
to Alexander, but finding themselves too closely pressed, 
they wounded him and left him by the road-side to die. 
The Battle of Arbela put an end to the Medo-Persian 
Empire, which had lasted from the first victories of Cyrus, 
227 years (B. C. 558-331)- 

62. The Persians were a keen-witted race, loving poetry 
and art, though less inventive than the Babylonians or 
the Greeks. Our knowledge of their religion is derived 
from the Zend Avesta, a very ancient collection of hymns, 
prayers, and directions for religious ceremonies. It was 
the work of Zoroaster, a Bactrian prophet, who lived and 
taught long before the Medes or the Persians existed as 



•■• "The phalanx, which formed the center of Alexander's army, was 
the most effective body of heavy-armed troops known to ancient tactics. 
The men were placed sixteen deep, armed with the sarissa or long 
pike, twenty-four feet in length. When set for action, the spear-heads 
of the first six ranks projected from the front In receiving a charge, 
the shield of each man, lield over the head with the left arm, over- 
lapped that of his neighbor; so that the entire body resembled a 
monster, clothed in the sliell of a tortoise, and the bristles of a por- 
cupine. So long as it held together, the phalanx was invincible. 
Whether it advanced its vast weight upon an enemy, like a solid 
wall of steel, bristling with spear-points, or kneeling, with each pike 
planted in the ground, awaited tlie attack, few dared to encounter it." 
— Anc. Hist., §83, p. 100. 



PERSIAN CHARACTER. 39 

5 

settled nations. This great reformer protested against the 
corrupt Nature-worship then prevalent in the East, and 
became the founder of a more spiritual faith (§41). 

63. The Persians were a frank, generous, and friendly- 
people. They hated fraud and debt, and even contemned 
commerce, as involving temptations to deceit. Their Greek 
enemies declared that no one could surpass them in 
courage. Their devotion to their kings was admirable, 
until it became so excessive as to destroy their self-respect, 
and make them sacrifice all that was dearest to them to 
the lightest whim of their sovereign. Thus when Cam- 
byses (§46) brutally shot the son of one of his courtiers, 
th-e wretched father only complimented the king on his 
skillful archery ! 

64. The Medo-Persians excelled all other Asiatics in 
their talents for government ; and the dominion organized 
by Darius I was very different from the loosely connected 
countries which had been conquered and ruled by Sargon 
and Nebuchadnezzar. Darius and his successors knew 
what was passing in the remotest corners of their empire 
by means of a myriad of spies, who were called the 
"King's Eyes" and the "King's Ears," and by the swift 
couriers who continually traveled over the royal roads. 

Trace, upon Maps i, 2, and 3, the conquests of Cyrus, Cambyses, 
Darius. The march of Xerxes. The sites of Alexander's victories. 
Point out Ecbatana, Cunaxa, Platrea, Issus. 

Read the story of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand in Xenophon's 
"Anabasis," or in Grote's History of Greece. 

For general Persian history, see Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, 
Herodotus, and Heeren's Historical Researches ; Asiatic Nations, 
Volume I. 



40 THE AN CI EXT WORLD. 



NOTES. 

1. Zoroaster was a great religious teaclier, wlio lived in Baetria, ac- 
cording to the best ancient accounts, about twenty-live centuries before 
Clirist. His system of doctrine was called Mazdeisni or Universal 
Knowledge, and it was the purest and most ennobling of uninspired 
creeds. Indeed, he declared that it W'as revealed to him by the "Ex- 
cellent Word " of the Author of Light, and was merely a revival of 
Ijrimitive belief, which had been forgotten during the enslavement of 
the Aryan people by an Arabian c(niqueror. ]VIany of the Aryans re- 
fused to accept his teaching, and, after violent contests, in which they 
were worsted, took up their march to the south-east, wliere, in time, 
they became the conquerors of India. The Indian and Iranian branches 
of the Aryan race were thenceforth distinct. 

The Zend-Avesta, or sacred writings attributed to Zoroaster, com- 
prised twenty-one books, of which only one is now complete; but we 
have three collections of hymns and fragments, and a later Persian 
translation of the story of the Creation. 

The distinctive feature of Zoroaster's teaching was tlie division of 
the world between the two opposing principles of Light and Darkness. 
All good and wholesome things were created by Ahura Mazda, or 
Ormazd; all evil and noxious ones by Aluiman, the spirit of darkness. 
"If Ormazd created a paradise, Ahriman sent into it a venomous ser- 
pent. All poisonous plants, reptiles, and insects; all sickness, poverty, 
plague, war, famine, and earihquakes; all unbelief, witchcraft, and 
deadly sins, were the work of Ahriman." Of course, there was a cease- 
less conflict between the two kingdoms, and it was the duty of every 
man to fight against the evil spirit bj' cultivating pure and healthy 
things, and destroying all that were harmful. "He is a holy man," 
Ormazd is represented as saying, "who has built a habitation on the 
earth, in which he maintains ttre, cattle, his wife, his childi'en, and 
flocks and herds. He who makes the earth produce barley, who culti- 
vates the fruits of the soil, cultivates purity; he advances the law of 
Ormazd as much as if he had oflFered a hundred sacritires." 

The Persians agreed with the Hebrews in their liclicf iti angels and 
demons. Six great princes of light served about the throne of Ormazd, 
and beneath theni were innumerable messengers, who were scattered 
about the universe on errands of mercy. Ahriman also had his army 
of spirits, whom he sent to work mischief in all parts of the world. 
They flrst led man into sin, from which orniazd sought to recover him 
by the revelation of his truth, and more especially by the mediation 
of Mithra. This mysterious being was prob ibly the subject of some of 
the lost books of the Zend-Avesta; w^e only know that he was the guard- 
ian of men during life, and their judge after death, and was more nearly 
related to Ormazd than any angel. He had gained a great vlctorj' over 
Ahriman, and had expelled him from heaven. 

Although good and evil were so nearly balanced in the present con- 
dition of the world, yet devout Zoroastrians believed that the Author 
of Good only was eternal, and that at some far distant day all men would 
be converted into willing subjects of light and truth. " Evil then should 
be finally conquered and destroyed; the creation should become as pure 
as on its flrst day, and Ahriman should (lisapi>ear forever." 

An interesting passage of the Vendidad desciilxs fourteen stages in 
the progress of the western Aryans, from the mountain region of Thibet 
to their final settlement in Persia. At everv place Ahriman sent upon 
them some disease or other calamitv, to compel them to go farther. In 
Ragha, or northern Media, the twelfth stage of their journey, tliey en- 
countered a large Turanian population, their ancient enemies. One 
body of immigrants remained in this region, and a thousand years of 
war ended in the establishment of the Aryan kingdom of Media; but, 
in the meantime, the religion which their fathers had learned from 
Zoroaster, became sadly corrujjted by mixture with the serpent-worship 
of the Turanians, tlie idolatry of the neighboring Assyrians, and the 
Chaldsean adoration of the seven planets. To this day the Vezidees, or 
devil-worshipers, of the same region, profess the dual Ijelief that Zo- 
roaster taught, but worskip only the evil which they fear, because, they 
say, the Good Spirit, being already kind and iuduigeut, does not need 
to be conciliated. 



NOTES. 41 

2. "Athens was the mother-city of the Ionic states, and tlie Attien- 
ians were disposed to syniiiatliize witli tlie lonians as tlieir kinsmen 
and colonists." Tliey liad, iiior<'()ver, their own grievance in the re- 
ception of tlieir exiled tyrant Hippias (P14) at the Persian court. But, 
though disposed to favor and restore Hipiiias, Darius does not appear 
to have thought the tyrant's late fellow -citi/.cns worth remembering 
until they gave him cause. When lie heard of the burning of Sardis, by 
the allied Greeks, the king exclaimed with contemptuous rage, "The 
Athenians! who are theyi^^ When he was informed, he seized his bow, 
and, shooting an arrow high into the air, he cried, "Oh, supreme God, 
grant me to take vengeance upon the Athenians!" And every day at 
dinner, an attendant was ordered to say three times, " Sire, remeniber 
the Athenians." 

3. An interesting record of the early years of Darius's reign has been 
found cut on a perpendicular rock-tablet of Behistun, the face of the 
cliff having been smoothed for the purpose. It bears four sets of in- 
scriptions, one of which is ascribed to Semiramis (jjll, and note); but 
the most important is in the words of "Darius the King." For a long 
time after this was known to exist, it was supposed to be wholly out 
of reach for purjjoses of information; for it was 300 feet ft-om the base 
of the mountain-wall, and the reader must be drawn up with ropes by 
a windlass placed on the summit. This perilous feat was performed 
many times by Colonel Rawliiison, of the British army, then holding 
an official post at Bagdad. He sjient some weeks in obtaining a copy of 
the pompous sentences which.Darius had ordered to be inscribed in three 
languages, Pei-sian, Babylonian, and Scythic, and which scholars have 
since, with incredible patience, industry, and learning, succeeded in 
deciphering. Their English version may be read in Kawlinson's " Her- 
odotus," Vol. II, Appendix. 

4. Their Persian allies were scattered; they were in the heart of an 
unknown and hostile country, two thousand miles from home, and 
surrounded by the victorious army of Artaxerxes. The wily Tissaiiher- 
nes, who had been rewanled with the dominions of Cyrus, detained 
them nearly a month by false pretenses of negotiation ; and, hav- 
ing led them as far as the head waters of the Tigris, gained posses- 
sion of all their officers, whom he caused to be put to death. At this 
crisis, the Athenian Xenophon called together the principal Greeks, at 
midnight, and urged the election of new officers, who should lead them 
back to their native land. The suggestion was adopted; five generals 
were chosen, of whom Xenophon was one, and, by break of day, the 
army had been mustered lV)r its homeward march. 

Their course lay over the table-lands of Armenia, where many per- 
ished in the freezing north winds, or were blinded by the unusual glare 
of snow. 

Here is Xenophon's own account of their arrival in sight of the Black 
Sea. "On the fifth day they came to the mountain; and the name of 
it was Theches. When the men who were in the front had mounted 
the height, and looked down upon the sea, a great shout proceeded from 
them; and Xenophon and the rear-guard, on hearing it, thought that 
some new enemies were assailing the front; for in the rear, too, the 
people from the country that the.v had burned were following them, 
and the rear-guard, by placing aii ambuscade, had killed some, and 
taken others prisoners, and had ca|)tured about twenty shields, made 
of raw ox-hide with the hair on. But, as th(^ noise still increased, and 
drew nearer, and as those who came up from time to time kept run- 
ning at full speed to join those who were continually shouting, the 
cries becoming louder as the men became more numerous, it appeared 
to Xenophon that it must be something of very great moment. 

"Mounting his horse, tlierefore, and taking with him Lycius and the 
cavahy, he liastened' forward to give aid, when presently the.v heard 
the soldiers shouting, 'The sea! the sea !' and cheering on one another. 
They all then began to run, the rear-guard as well as the rest, and the 
baggage-cattle and horses were put to their speed; and, when the.v had 
all arrived at the top, the men embraced each otlior and their gener- 
als and captains, with tears in their eyes. Suddenly, whoever it was 
that suggested it, the soldiers brought stones, and raised a large mound, 
on whicli they laid a number of raw ox-hides, staves, and shields taken 
from the enemy."— ^na6a*i\s. Book IV, Ch. VII. 



CHAPTER V. 




AFRICAN STATES AND COLONIES. 

jFRICA is, of all the continents, 
least fit for the home of man. 
One fifth of its surface is covered 
by a sea of sand, and the interior 
consists often of marshes and tangled 
forests. Its northern coast, however, is 
among the most favored regions of the 
globe. Here are the great Moorish 
corn-fields which once fed the hungry 
yV^^^^^y/ millions of Rome; while the Nile valley 
^ 1 1 1 1 III ! \ ill the north-east has sustained, from 
the earliest times, a swarming popula- 
tion. This great river, in its overflow, 
spreads every year over the lowlands 
a new deposit of fertile soil, so that 
the farmer has only to cast his grain 
upon the retiring waters, and a plentiful harvest springs 
up without further tillage. No wonder that the old idol- 
aters worshiped the Nile ! 

66. Egypt. — Long before our oldest records were writ- 
ten, Hamites, from south-western Asia, had settled in the 
valley of the Nile (§7). At first they formed a multitude 
of petty states, but gradually these became united into the 
two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. Now and then 
some powerful monarch, reigning at Thebes or Memphis, 
reduced both kingdoms under his sway, and reigned from 
the Isle of Elephantis to the sea. 

67. The Egyptians were great builders, and their pyra- 

(42) 



Cleopatra's Cartouch. 



EG YPTIAN HIS TOR V. 43 



mids, temples, and palaces seem destined to stand as long 
as the earth itself endures. More than this, they were 
great writers, and, now that the key to their language has 
been found, we may read their characters and daily em- 
ployments, their thoughts about life, death, and immortality, 
almost as familiarly as those of our own ancestors. 

68. Egyptian history, before the Persian conquest, is 
divided into three Periods : 

I. The Old Empire, from unknown antiquity to 1900 
B. C. 

II. The Middle Empire, or that of the Shepherd Kings, 
1900- 1525 B. C. 

III. The New Empire, 1525-525. 

During these three periods, 26 Dynasties, or families of 
kings, are on record; but sometimes two, three, or even, 
five of these were reigning at once in different parts of 
the country. The kings of the Fourth Uy- 

... /-I • 1 ■-ni B. C. 2440-2220. 

nasty built most of the pyramids. Ihese 
enormous masses of stone face the four main points of 
the compass; and one, known as the Great Pyramid, is so 
delicately adjusted for observations of the heavens that 
some wise men believe it to have been built by Divine 
direction. The useful and elegant arts made great pro- 
gress under the Pyramid-Kings. The copper-mines of the 
peninsula of Sinai were worked chiefly by .captives taken 
in war; and the pictures on the tombs indicate a refined 
and intelligent life among the people. 

6g. Egypt was soon divided into five separate kingdoms, 
and these, one by one, became the prey of invading tribes 
from Asia, led by the Shepherd Kings. ^ These rude and 
ignorant people made slaves of the Egyptians, and arrested 
the progress of arts and sciences for 400 years. 

70. At length a deliverer was found in the Theban 
Amo'sis, who rallied the spirit of the Egyptians and drove 
out the intruders. He became king of the whole country, 



44 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

and founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty.- For 800 years 
Egypt continued to be a united kingdom, and enjoyed the 
brightest period of its history. The government, though 
strong, was mild to its native subjects, but probably cruel 
to the captive Hebrews, whose lives were made bitter with 
hard bondage ($31) in the brick-kilns, and who built many 
of the vast temples and palaces for which this period is 
celebrated (Exodus, i: 7-14). 

71. Greatest of Egyjjtian monarchs was Rameses II, 
who made conquests in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and 
brought home a great train of captives to build new 
monuments of his glory. Fearing the increasing numbers 
of the race already enslaved, he ordered every Hebrew 
boy to be thrown into the Nile. It was probably his son, 
■Meneph'thah, who suffered the ten judgments of God for 
his oppressions, and finally let the Israelites go out from 
the land (Ex. vii : ip-xi : 5; xii : 29-33). For twenty 
years the buildings ceased, and the glory of the Egyptians 
was long in decline. 

72. During the seventh century B. C. the country was 
ruled by Assyria (^14); but when that empire fell, Psam- 
met'ichus,^ and his yet greater son, Ne'cho, revived the 
Egyjjtian i)ovver. By concpiering Phoenicia, Necho gained 
power on the sea, and the continent of Africa was first 
circumnavigated by his fleets. The story of the successful 
navigators was scarcely believed by the ancient world, 
because they declared that in rounding the southern cape, 
they had seen the sun to the northward. With our better 
system of astronomy we find this circumstance a strong 
confirmation of their truthfulness. Necho reigned for three 
years over all the country between the Mediterranean and 
Euphrates; but he was then defeated by Nebuchadnezzar 
(§^19) in the great batde of Car'chemish, and lost all his 
possessions in Asia. His successors paid tribute to Baby- 
lon, and, when freed from that yoke, they soon fell under 



RELIGION OF THE EG YPTIANS. 45 



the greater power of the Persians. Egypt was conquered 
by Cambyses, and became a part of the Persian Empire. 

73. The Religion of the Egyptians contained some true 
and noble principles, mingled with a disgusting idolatry. 
They believed in a future life,'* and that its happiness 
depended on their well doing while here. Their tombs were 
always in sight, in the sandstone ridges which bounded the 
narrow valley of the Nile. Between the city of the living 
and that of the dead lay a sacred lake, before passing 
which to his final rest, every man, whether king or peasant, 
had to be approved by the judges. If his life was found 
to have been unworthy, he was forever shut out from the 
sepulcher of his fathers. It was believed that the soul 
also must appear before a judgment-seat of the gods, and 
only when sealed as "justified," could it enter the abode 
of the blessed. 

74. If acquitted by the judges, the body was embalmed 
and returned to the house of its earthly abode, to be kept 
at least a month, and sometimes even a year, while joyful 
feasts were held in its honor. It then passed the sacred 
lake, and was laid away in a tomb whicli was more richly 
ornamented than the home of the earthly life. In late 
years the repose of these Egyptian tombs has been broken, 
and many "mummies" — the mortal forms of the men and 
women who walked about the streets of Thebes or Heli- 
op'olis thousands of years ago — have been added to the 
"curiosities" of our museums. 

75. The Egyptian priests were philosophers, who knew 
a great deal more than they chose to tell the people. 
They believed in one Supreme God, and thought it impious 
to represent Him by any work of human hands; but they 
made Him known to the multitude under various names 
and attributes. As the Creator, he was Phthah ; as the 
Revealer, he was Amun; as the Benefactor and the Judge 
of men, he was Osiris, etc. Even plants and animals were 



46 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

supposed to possess some portion of his life, and were 
accordingly worshiped by the ignorant. Thus Memphis 
had its bull, Apis, which was regarded as a living symbol 
of Osiris. It was worshiped in life, and buried after death 
with great pomp and solemnity. Heliopolis, likewise, had 
its sacred calf, Ombos and Arsinoe their crocodiles, Thebes 
and Sais their sheep, all objects of local adoration. Every 
year at the rising of the Nile a seven days' feast was held 
in honor of Osiris, the preserver and benefactor of men. 

76. Castes. — The priests constituted the highest rank 
in the kingdom, and by their knowledge, especially of 
physical science, they exercised great power over the 
common people. Not only religious services, but all the 
learned professions were entrusted to them. Their medical 
skill was widely famed, so that kings of Assyria sent to 
Egypt for physicians. Their power over body and soul 
was equally great, for, as the earthly judges of the dead, 
they could refuse to any man the passport by which he 
hoped to enter the abode of Osiris. 

77. Next below the priests stood the soldier -caste. 
During intervals of service, the soldiers lived on their 
own lands, each man having an allotment of about six 
acres. The kings sprang either from the priestly or the 
military order, usually the former, and in any case each 
monarch was made a priest as part of the ceremony of 
his coronation. He bore the title Phrah (Pharaoh), signi- 
fying the sun ; and as representing the god of light, was 
head of the state religion not less than of the monarchy. 

78. Below the two privileged classes were the great 
mass of the people, divided into four castes : farmers, 
boatman, artisans, and herdsmen. They owned no land, 
at least after the time of Joseph, the Hebrew prime- 
minister, who during a famine required all proprietors to 
sell their acres for food, holding them afterward merely 
as tenants of the king (Gen. xlvii : 18-26). The system 



CARTHAGE FOUNDED. 47 

of castes crushed all ambition among the people. Every- 
man was compelled to follow his father's occupation, and 
when the- labor market became over crowded, the king 
had only to project some grand, but often useless work, 
and draft thousands of men into the quarries to draw 
stones for a new pyramid. One huge stone required the 
labor of 2,000 men, three years, for its transportation. 

79. In the crowded cities of Egypt many industries were 
carried on. Vases of glass and porcelain, and engraved 
gems, still exist to prove the skill and industry of this 
ancient people. They excelled all other nations in the 
fineness of their linen fabrics and in embroidery. Doubt- 
less the Hebrew women learned of them the art by which 
they contributed to the beauty of the Tabernacle (Exodus 
xxvi : 36 ; xxxv : 25). 

80. The genius of the Egyptians is chiefly shown in 
their architecture, which, for grandeur of proportions and 
the masses of material employed, has never been equaled. 
In the great Hall of Karnak, the whole Cathedral of Notre 
Dame could stand without touching either walls or ceiling; 
and the Temple of Karnak is connected with the palace of 
Luxor by an avenue of 1,000 colossal sphinxes. Egyptian 
sculpture was huge rather than beautiful; yet there is an 
imposing dignity in the gigantic figures of kings who guard 
the entrances of some temples. In painting, the Egyptians 
aimed to represent facts rather than to please the imagina- 
tion; and though the pictures in their tombs afford most 
interesting views of the daily life of the people, they are 
hardly to be considered as works of art. 

81. Carthage. — The numerous Phoenician colonies have 
already been mentioned (§23). Of these, the most im- 
portant was Carthage, a daughter city of Tyre, founded 
about 850 B. C. The neighboring African tribes were 
friendly, and the new city grew rapidly in size and wealth. 
Every known sea was penetrated by her ships; the Atlantic 



48 THE ANCTEXT WORLD. 



coast was explored from Norway to tlie Cape of Oood 
Hope, and the products of the whole ancient world filled 
her markets. The destruction of the mother city by 
Nebuchadnezzar ( § 24 ) threw nearly all of the western 
commerce of Tyre into the hands of the Carthaginians. 
All the Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean 
acknowledged Carthage as their leader, while her own 
colonies were scattered over Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, western 
Africa, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. 

82. The go\ernment of Carthage was copied, with little 
alteration, from that of Tyre. In place of the king were 
two officers called Suffetes or Judges, elected for life 
from certain noble families. They were aided, or perhaps 
oftener opposed, by a grand council of several hundreds of 
citizens, from which committees were chosen to administer 
the various departments of state. Another Council of 
One Hundred was afterwards appointed, before which all 
generals, returning from war, had to render account of 
their actions; and so severe were its judgments, that an 
unfortunate commander sometimes chose to kill himself 
rather than appear before it. 

83. The religion of Tyre, of course, descended to her 
daughter, with the same gloomy and cruel observances. 
In times of calamity, children were thrown into the heated 
arms of a brazen image of Moloch, whence they rolled 
into a furnace of burning coals. No military movement 
was made without the direction of a prophet or diviner; 
and the progress of a battle was often interrupted while 
the general offered sacrifices. 

84. 'I'hree hundred years after her foundation, Carthage 
came into fierce collision with the (ireek cities of Sicily and 
southern Italy, and destroyed one of their fleets in a naval 
battle. The Greeks were great traders, and, therefore, 
rivals of the Carthaginians. In 509 B. C, Carthage made 
a friendly treaty with the infiint republic of Rome, which 



NOTES. 



49 



seemed less likely to become her rival, as the Romans 
despised trade, dividing their attention between farming 
and war with their Italian neighbors. They grew to be, 
however, the bitterest enemies, and finally the destroyers 
of Carthage. But the story of these later days will be 
more conveniently told in the history of Rome. See Ch. 
XIV. 

Point out, on Maps i and 5, the course of the Nile. Thebes. 
Memphis. Carthage. 

Read, concerning Egypt, Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of 
the Ancient Egyptians ; Herodotus, Book II ; Brugsch Bey's Egypt 
under the Pharaohs ; Rawlinson's History of Egypt, and Palmer's 
Egyptian Chronicles; Eber's Uarda and Egyptian Princess. Concern- 
ing Carthage, read Heeren's Historical Researches ; African Nations. 



NOTES. 

1. The best authorities consider it " in the highest degree probable " 
that it was tlie last of the Shepherd Kings, Apepi, who raised Joseph 
out of prison to be his prime minister (see Gen. xli). "The eleva-i 
tion of a foreigner and a Semite to so exalted an office, is thought to 
be far more likely under Hyksos than under native Egyptian rule; the 
marriage with the daughter of the high-priest of Heliopolis to be less 
surprising, and the Egyptian words and names connected with the his- 
tory to point to tills period." 

If this be so, the "shepherds" must have become civilized to a great 
degree by the example of the people whom they had enslaved. "For,"' 
continues Prof. Rawlinson, "the Pharaoh of Joseph is no rude and 
savage nomad, but a mild, civilized, and soinewliat luxurious king. 
He holds a grand court in a city not named, has a number of cup-bear- 
ers and confectioners, sits upon a throne or rides in a chariot, wears a 
ring on his liand, lias vestures of fine linen and collars of gold to be- 
stow on tliDsi' wliom he fiivors, uses the Egyptian language, and is, in 
fact, undistinguishable froin a native Egyptian monarch. He does not 
oppress any of his subjects. On the contrary, he sustains them in a 
time of scarcity when he becomes their landlord, takes a moderate 
rent, is especially lenient to the priests; and, when he receives the Is- 
raelites, even concedes to his subjects' prejudice against 'shepherds.' If 
he is by birth and descent one of the Hyksos, he has adopted all the 
ordinary habits and modes of life of the Egyptians; he is even, it would 
seem, tolerant of their religion." 

It can easily be understood that when the foreign rulers had been 
cast out, the favor in which the Hebrews had been held by them would 
give way to a very different treatment. 

2. The greatest king of the Eighteenth Dynasty was Thothmes III., 
who was a miy;lity conqueror, both by land and sea. The French his- 
torian Lenorniant iiif.-rs from an inscription at Thebes "that the fleets 
of the great Pharaoh, after having first conquered Cyprus and Crete, had 
further subjected to his scepter the islands of the southern archipelago, 
a consideraijle portion of the seaboard of Greece and Asia Minor, and 
even, perhaps, the lower extremity of Italy." He concludes "from the 
same monument, that the war-vessels of Thothmes III. penetrated pretty 
frequently into the waters of the Black Sea, where Herodotus pretends 

Hist.— I. 



56 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



that the Egyptians had before this founded a colony in Colchis for the 
worliing oftiie mines. . . . Memorials of the reign of Thothmes III. 
have been found at Cherchell, in Algeria; and it is not at all impossi- 
ble that they really mark the limit whereto the power of this prince 
extended on the north coast of Africa." English and German Egyptol- 
ogists read the names in the inscriptions diflferently, but there" is no 
doubt that Thothmes ruled the coasts of Syria, C'ilicia, and Cyprus, as 
well as of Egypt. By his great buildings "he has left the impress of 
his presence in Egypt more widely than almost any other of her kings, 
while, at the same time, he has sujiplied to the great capitals of the 
modern world their most striking Egyptian monuments. The memo- 
rial which he erected to commemorate his conquest of the land of Xa- 
harain (Mesopotamia), looks down upon the place of the Atmeidan in 
the city of Constantine; one of his great Tlieban obelisks rears itself in 
the midst of the Piazza in front of the Church of St. John Lateran, in 
Rome; while the twin spires, which he set up before the temple of the 
Sun at Heliopolis, after long adorning Alexandria, have been conveyed, 
respectively, to London and New York." — RawUnson. 

3. Esarhaddon (P4) divided Egypt into twenty districts, over which 
he placed twenty rulers,— some Assyrian, some native Egyptian, but all 
subject to his commands. One of these was Fsammetiehus or Psamatik, 
a Libyan, king of Sais. The powerful Ethiopian king, Tirhakeh, who 
had previously ruled Egypt, was driven away to tlu' southward. But 
"no sooner did f^sarhaddon, in B. C. 669, show signs of I'liysical decay, 
than Tirhakeh IssulhI from his Ethiopian fastnesses, drsceiidcil the val- 
ley of the Nile, expelled the kings set up by Esaiiuuldoii, and ret'stal> 
lished his authority over the whole country. The kiniis tlcl to Nineveh, 
where they found'Asshur-bani-pal, the son of Esarhaddon, established 
in power. Learning from them what had haiijieiud, he at once put his 
forces in motion, and, in B. C. 668, led them tluDugh Syria and Pales- 
tine into Egypt, defeated the Egyptians and Ethiopians in a great bat- 
tle near Karbanit, stormed Memphis and Thebes, and forced Tirhakeh 
once more to take refuge in his own proper country. After tliis he re- 
tired, having first reinstated the princes in their former governments 
and strengthened the Assyrian garrisons in the various towns." 

A new revolt was followed by a new invasion, and so Egypt contin- 
ued to be "a shuttle-cock between Ethiopia and Assyria for some ten 
or twelve years." The perpetual advances and retreats of hostile armies 
"half ruined the towns, and carried desolation over the broad and 
fertile plains on either side of the river. The great city of Thebes, long 
the admiration of the Greeks, and probably for many years quite the 
most magnificent city in the world, passed into a by-word for depression 
and decay."— Read Nahum III, 8, 9. 

In this time of trouble and weakness, Psamatik, king of Sais, found 
his opportunity to reestablish the EgyiJlian monarchy. With the aid 
of a body of soldiers, mostly Carians and Ionian (Jreeks, sent by King 
Gyges of Lydia [g28), he defeated the forces of the vassal-kings, and 
" proclaimed himself 'lord of the two Egypts, the upper and the lower 
country.'" 

"The introduction into Egypt of a large body of Asiatic (ireeks, war- 
like, and yet civilized and refined, and the close relationship in which 
they henceforth stood to the king, were events of considerable impor- 
tance in their effect upon Egyptian art, manners, and habits of thought. 
The spirit of inquiry was suddenly awakened in the inert Egyptian 
mind, which had hitherto been content to work in a traditional groove, 
and had eschewed all needless speculations. Psammetichus himself 
had his curiosity aroused and began experiments and investigations. . . 
X question having been raised as to the relative anticpiity of ditferent 
races of mankind, Psammetichus had two children isolated from tlieir 
species, brought up by a dumb herdsman, and suckled l>y a goat, in 
order to see what language they would speak, since he presumed that, 
if they never heard a word uttered, they would revert to the primitive 
type of speech. The result of his experiment was thought to prove the 
Phrygians to be the most ancient nation." 

"It would seem that another consequence was the opening of free 
communication and commercial intercourse between Egypt and Asiatic 
Greece, such as had certainly not e.xisted previously. The Egyptians 
had hitherto been jealous of foreigners, and scarcely allowed them to 



NOTES. 51 

land on their coast. Now Greek trade, and even Ureek settlements, were 
encouraged." Merchants from Miletus established two cities at difl'erent 
mouths of the Nile, of which, Naucratis, the more westerly, became an 
important seat of Greek commerce. Here 8olon resided during those 
years of his early manhood, when he was not only repairing his injured 
fortune, but eiiriehiny; liis mind by oljservations of laws and customs 
which miglit bi' made useful to his fellow-citizens."— See note, p 68. 

By his employment of foreign soldiers, Psammetichus gave great of- 
fense to the Egyptian warrior-class, who seceded to the number of 
200,000, and, passing through Nubia and Ethiopia, established a military 
colony on the Wliite Nile, only nine degrees from the equator. 

4. "How it happened " — says Prof. Rawlinson, in his History of 
Egypt—" that in Es^yptiaii thought the future life occupied so large a 
space, and was felt to be so real and so substantial, while among the 
Hebrews 'and the other Semites it remained, even after contact with 
Egypt, so vague and shadowy, is a nlystery which it is impossible to 
penetrate. We can only say that so it was; that from a time anterior 
to Joseph, or even Abraham, the children of Mizraim, in their bright and 
fertile land on either side of the strong-flowing Nile, thought as much 
of the future life as of the present; that their religious ideas clustered 
rather about the tomb than about the temple; and that their worship, 
domestic rather than national, though it included, among its objects, 
some beings regarded as wholly divine, was directed especially toward 
the spirits of those who had been their fathers in the flesh." 

" There was another worship, also of a practical character, which be- 
longs almost certainly to this early period— the worship of the reigning 
monarch. Each king was regarded as an incarnation of Horus, was 
assigned a priest or priests, and a temple; or, at any rate, a chapel. 
He was styled 'the victorious Horus,' 'the divine lord,' 'the ever-liv- 
ing.' His subjects worshiped him, not only during his life, but after 
his death." 

Diodorus of Sicily wrote of Egypt in the first century before Christ: 
"The inhabitants of this region consider the term of man's present life 
to be utterly insignificant, and devote by lar the largest part of their 
attention to the life after death. They call the habitations of the living 
'places of sojourn,' since we occupy them but for a short time; but, to 
the sepulchers of the dead they give the name of 'eternal abodes,' since 
men will live in the other world for an indefinite period. For these 
reasons they pay little heed to the construction of their houses, while 
in what concerns burial they place no limit to the extravagance of their 
eflTorts." 




Egyptian Sculptors. 



PART II. — Hellenic States. 



PERIOD I. — The Age of Fable. 



CHAPTER VI. 




EARl.IESI' HISTORY OF THE (JKEEKS 
— IHEIR RELIGION. 



E 



XCEPTING the Jews, 
the nations hitherto de- 
scribed have given but 
few ideas to our modern 
life. The influence of 
Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia 
has doubtless reached us in- 
directly through their dealings 
with the Hebrews and (ireeks; 
but those mighty empires are 
too remote in time and cir- 
cumstances to have affected us 
greatly. Greece, on the con- 
trary, by her art, literature, 
Bust of Homer. and philosopliy, has exerted a 

controlling influence ujjon the intellectual life of the world. 

86. The Greeks were Aryans, like the Medes, Persians, 
Bactrians, and the Brahmins of India, and were probably 
among the earliest emigrants from the original home in 

(52) 



THE GREEK PENINSULA. 



S3 



Asia (§5). The first-comers were called Pelasgi ; their 
successive abodes in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy may 
be traced by remains of their buildings, which may still 
be seen, composed of enormous masses of rough stone 
joined without cement. Many other tribes followed, among 
whom the Helle'nes at length gained the chief power in 
Greece, and gave their name to all the Aryan settlers of 




^MVLcn, I 



Map 3. — Greece. 

that peninsula and its neighboring islands. "Wherever 
the Hellenic tongue was spoken, there was Hellas;" the 
names of Greece and Greeks were of later origin. 

87. If you look upon Map 3, you will see that the 
Greek peninsula is divided, by deep gulfs, into a northern, 
a central, and a southern imrt. These are, moreover, in- 



54 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



tersected by mountain-chains, so that twenty-four separate 
states existed within this httle peninsula, which is only 
250 miles long and 180 miles wide at its greatest extent. 
Northern Greece contained two countries, Thessaly and 
Epirus; Central Greece, eleven, of which Attica was the 
most celebrated, though not the largest; and the Pelopon- 
nesus, or Southern Greece, had also eleven, among which 
Laced^emon, with Sparta for its capital, long held the 
supremacy. 

88. The Greeks were a bright, active, and enterprising 
people. Tempted by the bays and inlets which so deeply 
indent their coasts, and by the many islands which afford 
easy stepping-stones to Asia, they very early became sailors 
and traders to foreign lands. Their cities in Asia Minor, 
Sicily, and southern Italy surpassed those of the mother- 
land in wealth and beauty. Thus open on every side to 
foreign influences, the Greeks could not fail to profit by 
the civilization of older nations.^ They learned the art of 
alphabetic writing from the Phoenicians, and derived many 
ideas concerning philosophy and religion from "the learn- 
ing of the Egyptians." 

89. Hellenic history will be treated in four periods : 

I. The Age of Fable, ending with the Dorian Migra- 
tion, 1 100 B. C. 

II. Authentic History, from the Migrations to the Per- 
sian Wars, 500 B. C. 

III. From the Beginning of Persian Wars to the Suprem- 
acy of Macedon, 338 B. C. 

IV. Empire of the Greeks in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 
until their conquest by the Romans, 146 B. C. 

90. The Age of Fable is also called the Heroic Age. 
The Heroes were supposed to have been sons of the gods, 
and to have surpassed all common men in strength, beauty, 
and greatness of soul. Among the most celebrated were 
Her'cules, whose "twelve labors" delivered the land from 



SIEGE OF TROY. 55 



noxious pools, savage beasts, and still more dangerous 
men ; The'seus,^ the civilizer of Attica, and founder of the 
Isthmian Games (§103); Mi'nos, king of Crete, a great 
lawgiver and judge; and Ja'son, a Thessalian prince, who 
sailed with fifty brave comrades through the Black Sea to 
Colchis in quest of the Golden Fleece. The stories of 
these and many other heroes may be read in the Greek 
Mythology. 

gi. Last and greatest of the heroic deeds, was the ten 
years' siege of Troy, in Asia Minor. Paris, son of the 
Trojan king Priam, had carried away Helen, wife of 
Menela'us, king of Sparta. All the Greek princes mustered 
their ships and men to punish the wicked deed; and, 
choosing Agamem'non, brother of the injured Menelaus, as 
their leader, they sailed across the blue yEgean, and be- 
sieged Troy. The closing scenes of the war are narrated 
by Homer in the Iliad, one of the greatest poems of the 
whole world's literature. 

92. Achil'les, the favorite hero of the Greeks, quarreled 
with Agamemnon and shut himself up in his tent. Hector, 
the bravest of the Trojan princes, now gained the advan- 
tage and drove the Greeks to their ships. Pat'roclus then 
borrowed the armor of Achilles, and at the head of his 
Myrmidons drove back the Trojans and saved the ships, 
but was himself slain by Hector. To avenge his friend, 
Achilles reappeared in battle, and killed the brave Hector, 
whose corpse he dragged behind his chariot about the 
walls of the city. Achilles himself perished in the fight, 
but the Greeks were victorious. Troy fell, and for ages 
lay so buried in ruins that some have even doubted 
whether it ever existed. Within a few years, however, the 
efforts of Dr. Schliemann have brought to light the palace 
of Priam, and many of its ornaments in gold, silver, and 
bronze, together with a gate and temple which were de- 
scribed by Homer. 



56 THE AXCIEXT WORLD. 

93. Whether we believe the poet's story or not, his 
descriptions afford true pictures of early Greek customs 
in war, government, and home life. Each little state 
(^^87) had its king, who was supposed to be descended 
from Zeus (§95), and who was at once the father, the 
judge, the general, and the priest of his people. A council 
of nobles, also sons of the gods, aided him with their 
wisdom and their arms. They had broad lands, many 
slaves, and treasures of gold and silver; but king and 
nobles lived simply and industriously, plowing and reap- 
ing their fields, building and rowing their boats, and even 
sometimes cooking their own dinners. 

94. Queens and noble ladies wove the wool and flax 
of their husbands' estates into garments for themselves and 
their families, while princesses brought water from the 
well, or helped their slaves to wash garments in the rivers. 
These early Greeks loved poetry, music, and all the arts; 
and in every house a cordial welcome awaited the minstrel 
who sang the brave deeds of heroes, or the visits of the 
gods to men. In this way Homer's poems passed from 
mouth to mouth centuries before they were committed to 
writing. 

95. Greek Religion was for the most part a refined 
form of Nature-worship. All Hellenes believed in Zeus,^ 
the Thunderer, king of gods and men; in Posei'don, god of 
the sea; Apollo, the sun-god; Airs, god of war; HephcEs'tus, 
of fire and the useful arts; and in Hcr'nics, the promoter of 
commerce and wealth. The six chief goddesses were Hera, 
wife of Zeus; Athc'na, his favorite daughter; Ar'fcniis, the 
moon-goddess; Aplirodi'tc, the impersonation of beauty and 
love; Hcs'tia,* \\\t guardian of domestic life; and Dcmc'tcr, 
the bountiful mother of harvests. These twelve constituted 
the supreme council of the gods, on the heights of Mt. 
Olympus; but every field, river, and forest was supposed 
to be inhabited by its separate divinity. 



GREEK RELIGION. 57 

96. "Mysteries," in honor of Demeter, were celebrated 
every year at Eleusis, in Attica; and so reverently were 
they regarded, that it was a crime even to mention them 
in the presence of foreigners or others who were not 
admitted to a share in them. Of course we have no means 
of knowing what rites or doctrines were so secretly com- 
memorated; but ancient writers seem to intimate that they 
were connected with the hope of a future life. They gave 
a feeling of comfort and sectirity to their participants; and, 
in, case of sudden peril, strangers often asked each other, 
"Have you been initiated?" 

97. Much less respectable were the ora^ics or drunken 
rites held in honor of Diony'sus, god of the vine. Troops 
of women, called Bacchantes, spent whole nights upon the 
mountains, shouting, leaping, and clashing noisy instru- 
ments, even tearing human victims to pieces and devouring 
their flesh. They believed that this frenzy arose from the 
presence of the god, and that those who resisted it would 
be punished with madness. 

98. In spite of these strange occasional excesses, the 
Greeks believed that the Ruler of the world demanded 
truth, purity, and justice from men. In the earliest times, 
if deadly sins were committed, there was no hope; the 
guilty person was haunted by avenging goddesses, wlio 
never slept, but stood or walked by his side with flaming 
eyes until his crime was punished. Afterward the idea of 
atonement for sin was derived from Asia — perhaps indi- 
rectly from the Hebrews. In case of famine, pestilence, 
or defeat in war, whole cities or states endeavored to 
cleanse themselves by prayers and sacrifices, from some 
known or hidden crime. 

99. From very early times the gods were, supposed to 
make known their will to men by dreams, oracles, divina- 
tions, and the motions of the stars. The most celebrated 
oracle was that of Apollo at Delphi. His priestess seated 



58 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



herself at the mouth of a cave, whence issued an intoxi- 
cating vapor, and, when sufficiently giddy or inspired, 
uttered a response so obscure that the inquirer needed 
more wit to discover what it meant than to decide upon 
the best course of conduct for himself. It is said that 
Croesus, king of Lydia, asked counsel at Delphi, whether 
he should make war against Cyrus (§29). The reply was, 
"If thou make war against the Persians, thou shalt ruin 
a great empire." When Croesus had lost his crown, he 
was not much comforted by the priestess' explanation, that 
his own empire had been great, and was now ruined. 

100. The Heroic Age ended with important movements 
among the four Hellenic tribes.* The barbarous Illyrians 
crossed the northern border, and crowded the Hellenes 
into closer quarters. The Dorians of central Greece then 
passed over to the Peloponnesus, of which they made 
themselves masters; and their leaders became kings re- 
spectively of Argos, Messenia, and Lacedaemon. Many 
lonians, thus crowded out of southern Greece, founded 
twelve new cities on the islands and eastern coasts of the 
-^gean. These soon became rich and flourishing, and 
were early noted for the brilliant genius of their people. 
The poets Homer and Anac'reon were lonians of Asia. 

loi. The Dorians, not content with their conquered 
peninsula, seized the islands of Cos and Rhodes, and a 
small portion of the Asiatic mainland, where they built 
Cnidus and Halicarnassus. The ^'Eolians also built many 
new cities, both in Asia and in Italy. 

Great changes occurred in the Grecian governments dur- 
ing the time of the Migrations. Almost all the monarchies 
were replaced by republics. Cities acquired much greater 
importance; in fact, each state now consisted of a city, 
with its little tract of subject territory. Though completely 
independent, and often envious and hostile toward each 

••■ The Dorians, lonians, Achceans, and /Eolians. 



THE OLYMPIC GAMES. 59 

Other, the Greeks of all these states, in Europe and Asia, 
prided themselves upon their common language, religion, 
and ancestry, which distinguished them from the rest of 
mankind, whom they called barbarians or babblers. 

102. This national feeling was kept alive by the great 
games and festivals, which, at least once in every year, 
drew together throngs of Greeks from the remotest corners 
of Hellas. Here were chanted the war-ballads of Homer, 
which described all the Greeks as united against a com- 
mon foe. Here, too, were friendly contests in running, 
leaping, wrestling, and racing with horses and chariots. 
Every Greek, however poor or unknown, was admitted to 
the competition; but all barbarians., though of royal birth, 
were excluded. The victor was crowned with wild olive, 
laurel, or pine; he was welcomed home with choral pro- 
cessions, and with all the honors that his native city 
could bestow. 

103. Oldest and most famous of all were the Olympic 
Games — said to have been founded by Hercules — which 
were celebrated once in four years, in E'lis, the Holy Land 
of the Hellenes. While these games lasted, all wars ceased; 
and so great was their importance, that the Greeks of 
later years used the period of their recurrence as a 
measure of time. The First Olympiad \iz.% B. C. 776-772. 
Next in rank were the Pythian Games, in honor of Apollo, 
held in Phocis, the third year of every Olympiad. They 
included competitions in music and poetry, as well as ath- 
letic contests. The praises of Zeus were again celebrated 
by the Nemean Games, every two years, near Cleona; in 
Argolis ; and those of Poseidon, the sea god, in the alter- 
nate years, by the Isthmian Games, near his temple on 
the Isthmus of Corinth. 

104. Another bond of union was formed by leagues of 
kindred tribes, for worship and for mutual counsel and 
defense. The sacred Isle of Delos was the relic-ious me- 



6o THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



tropolis of the Cyclades, whither all the Ionian cities sent 
yearly embassies to offer sacrifices to Apollo. The Ionian 
and Dorian cities, in Asia Minor, had each a federal 
union, whose meetings were celebrated by games and 
religious festivals ; and on the Greek peninsula a grand 
" Amphictyonic Council" of twelve tribes met twice every 
year — in the spring, at Delphi, and in the fall, at Anthela, 
near Thermopylae. The faith of the Council was pledged 
to the protection of every member by the following oath : 
"They would destroy no city of the Amphictyons, nor cut 
off their streams in war or peace; and if any should do so, 
they would march against him and destroy his cities; and 
should any pillage the property of the god (Apollo), or 
plan any thing against his tem})le, at Delphi (§99), they 
would take vengeance upon him with hand and foot and 
voice, and all their might." 

Name the natural l^oundaries of Greece. Point out, on Maps 2 
and 3, the Aml^racian, Corinthian, and Saronic gulfs. The states of 
northern (ireece. Of central Greece. Of the Peloponnesus. The 
islands of Eubrea, Deles, Samos, Lesbos, Leninos, Rhodes, Crete. 
Miletus, and other Ionian cities in Asia Minor. Mitylene, and other 
jEolian cities. Cnidus, and other Dorian cities. Troy. 

For illustration, read Kingsley's "Heroes;" Hawthorne's "Wonder 
Book" and "Tanglewood Tales;" Homer's Iliad, in Bryant's or Lord 
Derby's translation ; and Bryant's translation of the Odyssey. 

For information, see Felton's Smith's Greece, Book I, and the early 
volumes of (irote's History of Greece. 

NOTES. 

1. The Greeks Ijclievcd that their remote ancestors learned the arts 
of eiviUzed life from (Jriental and Egyptian strangers. Athens was said 
to have been founded by Cecrops, a native of Sais in Egypt, who insti- 
tuted its forms of worship and domestic life. Its citadel was called the 
Cecropin down to the latest times. Danaun was fabled to have come 
from tlie >Jile-country with his fifty daughters, to escape the persecu- 
tion of their fifty suitors, who were all sons of his brother ^gyptus. He 
became king of Argos, and, as this kingdom enjoj-ed a certain leader- 
ship in early times. Homer often calls all the Greeks Danai. Pelops 
was believed" to have come from Asia Minor and founded the kingdom 
of Myeenfe. From him the Peloponnesus derived its name. 



NOTES. 6 1 



A grain of truth may be found in tlie story of Cadmus the Phoeni- 
cian, who was reputed to have founded Thebes, in Boeotia, and to have 
taught tlie people the arts of mining and vine-culture, and the use of 
the alpliabet. It is certain that both the names and the forms of Greek 
letters were derived from the Plia?niciRns; and, as these people planted 
colonies at a very early time in the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, 
they may very likely have penetrated the main land. The fortress of 
Thebes bore the name Cadmea to a late period. 

The stories of Egyptian colonies are thus accounted for by Dr. Smith : 
"The speculative Greeks [see note, p. 50J who visited Egypt in the 
sixth and fifth centuries before the Christian era, were profoundly im- 
pressed with the monuments of the old Egyptian monanlij-, which, 
even in that early age of the world, indicated a gray and hoary an- 
tiquity. The Egyptian priests were not slow to avail themselves of the 
impression made upon their visitors, and told the latter many a won- 
drous tale to prove that the civilization, the arts, and even the religion 
of the Greeks, all came from the land of the Nile. These tales found 
easy believers; they were carried bacdc to Greece, and repeated with va- 
rious modifications and embellishments; and thus, no doubt, arose the 
greater number of the traditions respecting Egyptian colonies in Greece. 

"The only fact whicli lends any countenance to the existence of an 
Egyptian colony in Greece, is the discovery of the remains of two pyra- 
mids at no great distance from Argos; but this form of building is not 
confined to Egypt. Pyramids are found in India, Babylonia, and Mex- 
ico, and may, therefore, have been erected by the early inhabitants ot 
Greece, independently of any connection with Egypt."— i^eMoji's Smith's 
" Greece." 

2. Among tire many memorable achievements of Theseus, son of 
King ^Egeus, "the most famous was his deliverance of Athens from 
the frightful tribute imposed upon it by Minos for tlie murder of his 
son. This consisted of seven youths and seven maidens whom the 
Athenians were compelled to send every nine years to Crete, tiiere to 
be devoured by tlie Minotaur, a monster with a human body and a 
bull's head, which Minos kept concealed in an inextricalile labyrintli. 
The third sliip was already on the point of sailing with its cargo of in- 
nocent victims, when Theseus offered to go with them, hoping to put 
an end forever to the horrible tribute. Ariadm*, the daughter of Minos, 
became enamored of the hero, and, having supplied him with a clew to 
trace the windings of the labyrinth, Theseus succeeded in killing the 
monster, and in tracking li is way out of the mazy lair. Ashe returned 
towards Athens, the pilot forgot to lioist the white sail agreed upon as 
the signal of success; whereupon .Egcus, thinking that his son had per- 
ished, tlirew himself into the sea, which afterwards bore his name. 

Theseus, having now ascended the tlirone, proceeded to lay the foun- 
dations of the future greatness of Athens. He united into one political 
body the twelve independent states into which Cecrops had divided 
Attica, and made Atiiens the capital of the new kingdom. In order to 
accommodate the increased population of the city, he covered with 
buildings the ground lying to the south of the Cecropian citadel; and, 
in conmii'uioration of the union, he instituted the festivals of the Pan- 
atheiuea and Synoikia, in iionor of Athena, tlie patron goddess of the 
city. He then divided the citizens into thrc(> classes; namely, Eiq><itri<he, 
or nobles; Geomori, or husbandmen; and Di-iniiinji. or artisans. He is 
further said to have established a constitutional governnieiit, retaining 
In his own hands only certain definite iiowers and privileges, so that 
he was regarded in a later age as the founder of civil equality' at Athens. 
He also extended the Attic territory to the confines of Peloponnesus, 
and established the games in honor of Poseidon, which were celebrated 
on tlie Isthmus."— i^etto/t'.s- ,Siitit/i'.'< '^ Grerce," p. 18. 

Theseus was reverenced for ages as the great local hero. The temple 
erected in his lionor is to this day the best preserved of all the beautiful 
works of Athenian areliiteeture. In times of national danger, as at the 
battle of Marathon (Jll">i the gigantic shade of Theseus was believed to 
be seen fighting in tlie midst of the Athenian ranks. 

3. It has been common to call the Greek gods and goddesses by the 
names of Roman divinities who most nearly resembled them in charac- 
ter; but this is often misleading. The Romans tried to find, in the dei- 



62 THE ANCIEA'T WORLD. 



ties of other nations, sometliingin common with their own; and, there 
is no doubt that many of the (ireeli and Koman conceptions of divinity 
were coiunion to them with otlier branches of the Aryan family. 

The following table gives the Cireek and Roman names of some of 
the principal deities that have been thus identifled : 

Greek. Roman. 

Zeus .Tupiter 

Poseidon Neptune 

Hades Pluto 

Ares JNIars 

Hephpestus Vulcan 

Hermes Mercury. 
Apollo bore the same name for both; Helios is an old Greek name for 
the sun-god, but is not identical with Apollo. 

GODDESSE.S. 

Hera Juno 

Athena Minerva 

Aphrodite Venus 

Artemis Diana 

Hestia Vesta 

Demeter Ceres 

Persephone Proserpina. 

4. "The religion of the sacred fire dates from the dim and distant 
epoch when there were as yet no Greeks, no Italians, no Hindus, when 
there were onlj' Aryans. When the tribes separated, they carried this 
worship with them — some to the banks of the Ganges, others to the 
shores of the Mediterranean. Later, when these tribes had no inter- 
course with each other, some adored Brama, others Zeus, and still others 
Janus; but all preserved, as an ancient legacy, the first religion which 
they had known and ])racticed in the common cradle of their race. 

"This Are was somethiuii divine; they adored it and offered it a real 
worship. They made otferings to it of whatever they believed to be 
agreeable to a god— flowers, fruits, incense, wine, and victims. They 
believed it to have power, and asked for its protection. They addressed 
fervent prayers to it, to obtain those eternal objects of human desire- 
health, wealth, and happiness. 

"At certain moments of the day tliey placed upon the flre dry herbs 
and wood; then the god manifested himself in a bright flame. 

"Before eating, they placed ui)on the altar the first fruits of the food; 
before drinking, they "poured out a libation of Avine. This was the god's 
liortion. No one doubted that he was present; that he ate and drank; 
for did they not see the flame increase as if it had been nourishetl by 
the provisions offered?" — Fustcl de Could iic/cs, '■'■The Ancient City.''' 

Cities, like families, had their sacred heartli-flres, before which a sa- 
ci-ed bancpiet was held every day. "In Athens, the men who took part 
in this common meal were selected by lot. Every guest had a crown 
upon his head; it was a custom of the ancients to wear a crown of 
leaves or flowers when one performed a solemn religious act. For the 
same reason, the banqueters were clothed in robes of white— white was 
the sacred color, that which pleased the gods. The meal invariably 
commenced with a prayer and libations, and hymns were sung." 

When a new city was to be founded, flre was carried from the sacred 
hearth— the jin/tctin-inn of the mother-city— and placed upon that of the 
daughter, which had henceforth the saine religion. Exile was consid- 
ered as a capital punishment, and from the complaints of its victims 
we should judge it to be worse than death. For tlie exile had no relig- 
ion; his own gods could be approached only at their own altars, and 
he had no right to enter the temple of an alien divinity. 



PERIOD 11. — From the Mii^mtious to Ihc Persian Wars. 



CHAPTER VII. 



SPARTA AM) ATHENS. 



HE history of the Greeks is 
mainly involved in that of 
the two leading states, Sparta 
and Athens. These not only 
represented the two more im- 
portant tribes, the Dorians and 
lonians, but the two opposing 
principles which divided every 
state in Greece, except, perhaps, 
Sparta herself: namely, the prin- 
ciples of oligarchy and democracy, 
the former aiming to place the 
government in the hands of a few 
powerful men, the latter, to entrust 
it to the people themselves. The 
Dorians were remarkable for their 
severe and simple manners; the lonians, for the brilliancy 
and harmonious balance of their minds, and their genius 
for all the arts which beautify life. 

io6. The laws of Sparta were said to be the work of 
Lycurgus,' who lived about 850 B. C. ; but, probably, he 
only shaped the customs already i^revailing into more 
exact form. When the Dorians conquered the Peloponnesus 

(63) 




Pallas Athena. 



64 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



(§ loo), most of the former occupants of the country be- 
came tenants and slaves of their conquerors. The Spartans 
were but few in comparison with these subject Achaeans, 
and Lycur'gus resolved to make up, by military drill and 
efficiency, what they lacked in numbers. To this end, 
every Spartan was a soldier, and was taught that his life 
belonged to the state. 

107. Every newly-born babe was brought before a 
committee of old men, who decided upon his right to 
live. If puny or sickly, he was cast into a ravine to 
perish; but if he seemed likely to be strong, he was 
accepted as a son of Sparta, and was endowed with one 
nine-thousandth jiart of the public lands. At seven years 
of age he was taken from his mother, and, until he was 
sixty, lived the life of a soldier. He ate black broth at 
the public tables; he was toughened by exposure to heat, 
cold, hunger, thirst, fatigue, and scourging, and thought 
himself disgraced if a word or sound of complaint escaped 
him. The girls were almost as severely trained as their 
brothers, and learned to prefer the glory of Sparta above 
all home affections. One mother shouted for joy when 
told that her eight sons had perished on one battle-field. 

108. Sparta had always two kings, supposed to be 
descended from twin grandsons of Hercules; but their 
power was only that of priests and generals, subject to the 
Senate, and, later, to the committee of five "Ephors," who 
really governed the state. The population of Lacednemon 
was divided into three classes: (i) the Spartans proper, 
descended from the Dorian conquerors, who kept to them- 
selves all honors and power in the government, and lived 
in the city of Sparta as in a camp, always ready for mili- 
tary duty. Commerce and all useful arts were left to (2) 
the subject Achcraiis, who inhabited the country towns. The 
fields were cultivated by (3) Hc/ofs,-3. race of serfs attached 
to the soil, who were kept in a most cruel slavery. To 



SPARTA AND ATHENS. 65 

shut out foreign luxuries, Lycurgus ordered Spartan money 
to be made of rusted iron, so that no other nation would 
receive it. 

109. For three hundred years from the time of Lycur- 
gus, Sparta was engaged in contests with her neighbors in 
the Peloponnesus — the Messenians, Arcadians, and Argives 
— which gave her the control of the peninsula. So great 
was her power, that she would, perhaps, have become 
mistress of all Greece, if the Persian Empire, now domi- 
nant in Asia, had not tried to extend itself into Europe 
King Darius turned his revengeful eyes upon the Athe- 
nians (§52), and his efforts to subdue them — or, rather, 
their brave resistance — made them, after the wars, the 
leading power in Greece. 

no. Athens was not only the rival, but the perfect 
contrast of Sparta. More than any other people that ever 
lived, the Athenians loved music, poetry, eloquence, and 
all the arts of expression ; while the Spartans prided them- 
selves upon their blunt, laconic speech, and thought it a 
crime to use three words where two would suffice. 

111. The last king of Athens fell in battle with the 
Dorians (§ 100), and for several centuries the nobles 
governed the state. Their power was often oppressive — 
especially when, in times of calamity, the poor were com- 
pelled to borrow money from them at a ruinous rate of 
interest, and became slaves from inability to pay their 
debts. At length, the people made their voice heard in a 
demand for written laws. To rebuke their presumption, 
the nobles appointed Dra'co, the sternest of their number, 
to prepare a code. Draco's laws were said to have been 
written with blood : the slightest crimes were punished 
with death, and the lives of all the people were placed at 
the mercy of the nobles. 

112. These cruel enactments drove the people to revolt, 
and the nobles, now convinced of their error, chose So'lon,^ 

Hisi. -5. 



66 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

the wisest of their class, to prepare a more just and liberal 
constitution. He abolished slavery for debt, 
' ^^^' gave to every freeman the right to vote, and ' 
laid the burdens of the state on those who were best able I 
to bear them. ' 

113. Still the rights of the people were not fully secured. 
Pisis'tratus, a kinsman of Solon, the most popular and ac- 
complished man of his time, but also the most 

' ^ °' ambitious, managed to usurp the supreme power. I 
For this reason he was called a tyrant;** but, though he 
gained his power by force, we can not deny that he used 
it wisely and well. He strictly enforced Solon's laws, and 
did much for the improvement of the people. He first 
collected the war-ballads of Homer into the great epic 
poem called the Iliad; and his library, the first in Greece, 
was freely open to all who wished to consult it. Though 
he was twice expelled from Athens, and once remained in 
exile eighteen years, Pisistratus at length established his 
power; and his sons, Hip'pias and Hippar'chus, succeeded 
him peaceably at his death, 527 B. C. 

114. But the Athenians had now learned to be more 
careful of their liberties. Hipparchus was murdered by a 
citizen whom he had offended, and his brother, Hippias, 
was sent into exile. To prevent any citizen's becoming too 
powerful in future, the singular custom of ostracism'-^ was 
introduced. The best of men could be exiled for ten years, 
without accusation, trial, or defense, simply by a vote 
of one fourth of the Athenian freemen.^ To be ostracised 
was no disgrace, for it implied no crime, but was a tes- 



■•■•"So called from oarQaiim', the Greek name for the tile, or oyster- 
shell, on which the name of the person was written. If the Senate 
decicled that public safety demanded the ostracism, the citizens 
assembled, on an appointed day, in the market-place, and cast 
these ballots in a heap. If one man's name was found on 6,000 
tiles, he left the city within ten days. 



ATHENIAN OSTRACISM. 67 

timony to the talents and sometimes even to the virtues of 
its victim. This precautionary measure was the work of 
CHs'thenes, who, next to Solon, may be considered as the 
founder of Athenian liberty. He "took the people into 
partnership," and extended the rights of citizens to all 
free inhabitants of Attica. These he enrolled in ten tribes, 
each having an equal share in the control of civil and 
military matters. From this time Athens always had a 
"government by the people," excepting at two calamitous 
periods, when the Spartan faction, which existed in almost 
every city, was able to revolutionize its affairs. 

About ninety years after the adoption of Clisthenes' con- 
stitution, it happened that two great men called for the 
vote of the Senate, under which each hoped that the other 
would be ostracised. The Senate pronounced that some 
one must be exiled ; but, before the day appointed for the 
popular vote, the rivals made up the quarrel, and agreed 
to "fire off the safety-gun of the republic" against an 
insignificant man, whose presence or absence could make 
no difference to his fellow-citizens. But the ostracism, 
thus degraded, was never called for again. "It was not 
against such as he," said a Greek writer, "that the shell 
was intended to be used." 

Name the boundaries of Lacedaemon. Of Attica. Of Argolis, 
Arcadia, Messenia. 

Grote's History of Greece is the best authority for this period. 
Read, also, in Rawlinson's Herodotus, the two Essays following 
Book V. 

NOTES. 

1. So much doubt has been thrown upon the history of Lycurgus, 
that some writers have denied that lie ever lived at aU. We have 
reason, liowever, to believe that he was the brother of a Spartan king, 
who died early, and whose infant son lie afterwards cared for as guard- 
ian and regent. Dorian customs had fallen into some confusion in 
Sparta, and Lycurgus, during his regency, restored and confirmed them, 
adding such special provisions as were required by the ch-cuinstances 
of the state. His discipline and laws are well known, whatever we may 
think of their author; and they raised Sparta "in a little while to a 
proud and wonderful eminence." 

Having finished his work, Lycurgus made kings, senators, and peo- 
ple swear that they would make no change in his laws until his return. 



68 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



He then left Sparta forever. He oflfered sacriflees to Apollo at Delphi 
{\ 99), and received an assurance that Sparta should be the most glori- 
ous city in the woi'ld so long as she obeyed his laws. " Where and how 
he died nobody could tell. He vanished from the earth like a god, 
leaving no traces behind but his spirit; and he was honored as a god 
at Sparta, with a temple and yearly sacrifices down to the latest times." 

2. The Helots were never allowed to forget that they were slaves. 
They were clothed in the skins of sheep and dogs, and were cruelly 
scourged for no fault of theirs. Sometimes they were forced to become 
intoxicated, that Spartan boys might be taught to despise drunkenness. 
Worse than all, from time to time, bands of young Spartans, armed 
with daggers, were ordered to range over the counti-y, murdering the 
strongest and best of the Helots. This was partly to improve their own 
military discipline, but also to keep down the rustic population, who 
were constantly increasing in numbers, while the Spartans were di- 
minishing. In war, every heavy-armed Spartan was attended by a 
certain number of light-armed Helots, sometimes as many as seven. 
If a Helot rendered very distinguished service, he was sometimes re- 
warded by freedom; but this was rare. On one occasion, wlicn Sparta, 
in a great emergency, had been well served by these subject pt'ui)le, a 
proclamation was issued that the bravest and best might come and claim 
their freedom ;— two thousand presented themselves and were treaclier- 
ously put to death. 

It is clear that Spartan cruelty arose in this case from fear; but the 
danger was the result of a false and wicked system, which must have 
destroyed all sentiments of justice and generosity in the master, as well 
as of manliness in tlie serf. 

3. Though Solon was of a great Athenian family, being descended 
from King Codrus, he was poor; and, to mend the fortune which his 
tatlier's extravagance had impaired, lie betook himself to foreign trade. 
He was not, however, ambitious to become rich, but desired rather to 
improve his mind by the widest experience and observation. While he 
was exchanging his Attic oil and honey for Egyptian millet at Naucra- 
tis, he was studying the life of the people under the rule of the Pha- 
raohs, and unconsciously fitting himself to be of service to his fellow- 
citizens. Attica was sufTering then, as many a state has f-ince, from a 
violent strife of parties. Tlie Plain, the Shore, and the Mountain, were 
party names for the proud and wealthy nobles, the merchants, and the 
peasants. The latter were often very poor, and, under the hard laws of the 
time, many had become the slaves of their creditors, from whom they had 
borrowed money at enormous rates of interest. Solon's experience en- 
abled him to sympathize with all parties, to two of which he belonged. 
He repealed the harsh laws of Draco, and relied upon the Atlienian 
love of fame and approval as sutficient motives to good citizenship. 
Special acts of patriotism were rewarded by crowns, public banquets, 
places of honor in the popular assemblies, or by a statue in the market 
place or the streets. On the other hand, a citizen who remained indif- 
ferent in time of i)ublic danger, was declared to be disgraced. 

4. The name tyrant had no bad meaning until the men who bore it 
made themselves odious by their abuse of power. The earliest tyrants 
took sides with the common people, and often secured for them a wel- 
come relief from, the oppressions of the noljles. The great danger con- 
nected with atyrany was, that it was subject to no laws, and was limited 
only by the tyrant's own good disposition or his fear of revolt. This 
he was usually able to prevent by means of a force of foreign soldiery, 
whom he paid out of the revenues of the state. 

The first step of Pisistratus toward absolute power was certainly in- 
genious. Wlien his plans were ready for execution, he appeared one 
day in the market-place, bleeding with self-inflicted wounds, which he 
assured the iieople he had received in defense of their rights, -from his 
and their enemies, the factious nobles. The people, in their grief and 
indignation, voted him a guard of fifty club men. Solon saw the dan- 
ger that lurked in this measure, but his remonstrances were unheeded. 
Pisistratus did not limit himself to the fifty men allotted him, but raised 
a much larger foi'ce, w'ith which he seized the Acropolis, and made 
himself inaster of the city. His first tyranny lasted but a short time; 



NOTES. 69 

then he was driven from Athens, and his property was sold at auction for 
the benefit of the state. After he was gone, the two parties of the Plain 
and the Shore quarreled between themselves, and the latter invited Pi- 
sistratus to return. To explain matters to the Athenians, or, as some say, 
to secure their consent, a new sclieme was invented. A tall and very 
beautiful peasant girl was found in one of the country districts of Attica, 
who, when arrayed in glittering armor, looked stately enough to rep- 
resent Athena herself. A rumor was set afloat among the people that 
their tutelary goddess was coming in her own person to bring back her 
chosen vicegerent to her city. Accordingly, a great crowd assembled 
to worship Athena and acknowledge Pisistratus as their ruler. 

The second tyranny, like the first, was short; for his old enemies made 
peace with each other and united in expelling him. This time he did 
not wait to be recalled, but raised contributions of men and money 
among the other cities of Greece, and landed with a great army at Mar- 
athon. Here he was joined by a crowd of friends from Athens, and 
gained an easy victory over the troops that were hastily sent to oppose 
him. Then marching upon the city he secured himself in power by keep- 
ing his foreign mercenaries, and by sending sons of the first Athenian 
families tobe hostages with his friend and ally, Lygdamis, on the island of 
Naxos. The gold mines which he owned near the river Strymon, af- 
forded the means, not only of paying his troops, but of gaining favor 
with the Athenians by beautifying their city with temples and other 
architectural works. The greatest was the temple of the Olympian Zeus, 
a colossal structure, 359 feet in length by 173 in width, which was 
completed 650 years after its foundation, by the Roman Emperor Ha- 
drian. 

This third tyranny of Pisistratus was by far the longest, lasting, some 
say, sixteen years. It was the period of all his peaceful enterprises, 
among others the institution of the greater Panathenaja, or twelve- 
days' festival in honor of Athena. It was distinij,nished from the lesser 
Panathentea instituted by Theseus (see note, p. (11) by a sacred proces- 
sion carrying a crocus-colored robe, embroidered with representations 
of the victories of Athena, to her temple, the Erechtheum, and more 
especially by recitations of the poems of Homer, which Pisistratus had 
collected for this purpose. The greater Panathensea occurred in the 
third year of every Olympiad ; the others, in the first, second, and fourth 
years. 

5. Probably the most illustrious victim of this i^eculiar custom was 
Aristides (§120) whose honorable character was universally known and 
esteemed. When he held the office of archon, the courts of law were said 
to be deserted, because all suitors felt safer in submitting their causes to 
Ills arbitration. 

He was opposed on almost every point of public policj' by Themis- 
tocles (jiin and note), who desired to make Athens a maritime power, 
while Aristides wished her to remain an agricultural state. Their dis- 
putes ran so high that the ostracism was proposed, and Aristides was 
banished. It is said that during the voting he was asked by a man 
wdio could not write, to inscribe the name of Aristides on an oyster- 
shell for him. "Why?" said the great archon, "has Aristides ever in- 
jured you?" " No," said the man, "nor do I even know him by sight, 
but it vexes me to hear him always called 'the just.'" Aristides wrote 
his own name on the shell, which was cast into the heap. 

As he left his beloved city, he exclaimed, "May the Athenian peo- 
ple never know a day which' shall force them to remember Aristides!" 
This generous wish was not fulflUeil. The great crisis of the Persian 
wars, to be described in the next chapter, demanded the best efforts of 
all loyal Greeks. At midnight, before the liattlc of Salamis (^118), Them- 
istocles was called from a council of officers on board ship to meet Aris- 
tides, who had crossed in an open boat from ^Egina, to inform his an- 
cient rival of the danger to which he was exposed. "At any time," said 
the just man, "it would become us to forget our private dissensions, but 
now especially, in contending who should most serve his country." 

His exile ended with the victory at Salamis, which restored all the 
Athenians to their burned or shattered homes; and the following year 
he was general-in-chief of the Athenian forces. Three years after the 
battle, as president of the Hellenic League, he was raised to the highest 
honor ever conferred by all the Greek stales upon a citizen of one. 



PERIOD HI. —From the Bco^inuiin- of the Persian Wars 
to the Aseendency of Alaeedou. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MARATHON, THERMOPYL.^J, SALAMIS: SUCCESSIVE SUPREMACIES OF 
ATHENS, SPARTA, THEBES, MACEDON. 

E have learned in the liistory of 
Persia (§52) how the Athenians 
drew upon themselves the venge- 
ance of the great King Darius, 
by aiding their brethren in Asia to 
revolt. The first fleet which he sent 
to conquer Greece was wrecked at 
Mt. Athos; but the second — after 
burning Carystus and Eretria, on the 

island of Euboea — landed 
I). C 490. , 

100,000 men on the east- 
ern coast of Attica. The Athenians, 
led by Milti'ades,^ met them upon 
the plain of Marathon. Both armies 
fought long and bravely. The Medes 
A Grecian Soldier. ^^j-j^j Persians wcre the most magnifi- 
cent soldiery in the world, and they outnumbered the 
Athenians ten to one. Nevertheless, they were driven to 
their ships with great slaughter, and sailed away to Asia. 
A ten years' breathing-space then enabled the Greeks to 
collect their forces. 
(70) 




BATTLE OF SALAMJS. 71= 

116. In the spring of 480, B. C, the greatest army that 
the world has ever seen (§53) came pouring into Greece. 
The two Spartan commanders, Leon'idas on land, and 
Eurybi'ades with his fleet upon the sea, met Xerxes at 
Thermopylae. In this narrow pass between Mt. (Eta and 
the Malian Gulf, a mere handful of Greeks held the whole 
Persian host at bay for more than a week. At length a 
treacherous Greek showed the Persians a path over the 
mountain, by which they could attack the little army in 
the rear. Thus betrayed, Leonidas dismissed all his forces 
excepting 300 Spartans and a few hundreds of Thespians 
and Thebans, and, rushing upon the enemy, fought until 
every man but one was slain. 

117. The gates of central Greece were now open, and 
the army of invaders pressed on. Eurybiades would have 
withdrawn the whole fleet to the Peloponnesus, leaving 
Athens to its fate; but Themis'tocles,^ the Athenian leader, 
persuaded him to stay long enough at Salamis to allow 
the people of Athens to find places of safety. The oracle 
at Delphi had directed them to seek refuge in "wooden 
walls," which Themistocles assured them must mean their 
ships. A mournful procession of refugees immediately 
withdrew from the city, leaving behind only a few who 
were too poor or too feeble to be removed. Beautiful 
Athens was burnt, in revenge for the destruction of Sardis. 

118. The great decisive combat between the Greek and 
the Persian forces, took place in the straits of Salamis. 
Xerxes himself, from a golden throne upon the shore, 
watched the battle between his magnificent armament of 
1200 ships and fewer than 400 on the part of the Greeks. 
But the Greek pilots knew all the currents and soundings 
of these narrow seas, and could drive the brazen beaks 
of their light craft straight into the cumbrous Persian 
vessels. The battle was long and obstinate, but it ended 
in a glorious victory for the Greeks. Xerxes sailed away 



72 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

in bitter humiliation to his own land. The next autumn, 
his great general, Mardo'nius, was defeated and slain at 
Platasa, and the remnant of his fleet was destroyed the 
same day at Mycale on the opposite side of the yEgean. 

1 19. The Persian kings gave up the attemjjt to conquer 
Greece, but for two hundred years they never ceased to 
meddle in her affairs by bribery and by stirring up the 
jealousies of the several states. Even the Spartan regent 
Pausa'nias, who had won the victory of Plataea, was per- 
suaded by their golden promises to betray his country. 
His treason, however, was discovered in time, and he 
was starved to death in a temple of Athena, his own 
mother bringing the first stone to block up its gates. 
Athens, instead of Sparta, now became the leading state 
in Greece. 

120. A Hellenic League was formed for the protection 
of the islands and coasts of the yEgean against the Per- 
sians. Its treasury, to which all the maritime states con- 
tributed, was on the sacred isle of Delos. "Aristi'des the 
Just" — the best and greatest Athenian of his time — was 

the first president of the league ; and such con- 
fidence did all men place in his wisdom and 
integrity, that he alone decided how much each state 
should pay into its treasury, and no one ever complained 
of his assessments. 

121. His successor was Ci'mon, the son of Miltiades. 
In 466 B. C., he gained a great victory over the Persians 
at the River Eurymedon, and swept the coasts of Asia 
Minor of their ships and armies. Cimon's immense wealtli 
and generosity made him the idol of the Athenians, whose 
city he adorned with marble colonnades and temples, with 
groves and fountains, until it became the glory of all 
Greece. Yet even he had to suffer, as Aristides and 
Themistocles had suffered before him, from the ingratitude 
and fickleness of the Athenians. 



AGE OF PERICLES. 



73 



122. Sparta was in great trouble through a revolt of the 
Helots (§ 1 08). These wretched people found courage at 
last to revenge themselves for centuries of ill-treatment; 
and the Messenians seized the opportunity to strike a blow 
for independence (§ 109). During the ten years' war 
which followed, Cimon persuaded the Athenians to forget 
their causes of complaint against Sparta and send her aid 
in her distress. He himself twice led an army to her 
assistance. But Spartan hatred of Athens could not even 
now be suppressed. The Athenian troops were insultingly 
dismissed; and so great was the vexation at home, that 
Cimon was ostracised as a friend of Sparta (§ 114). 

123. The popular party now came into power, with 
Per'icles, the most brilliant of all Athenian leaders, at their 
head. Knowing that freemen can only be governed by 
reason and persuasion, he had spent his youth in studying 
the history and the interests of Athens, the science of gov- 
ernment, and the arts of elotjuence. Nothing could exceed 
the power and beauty of his oratory, or the influence he 
acquired over his countrymen. 

124. The "Age of Pericles" is celebrated as the cul- 
minating period, both in the power and genius of Athens. 
Her maritime emj^ire extended over all the Greek coasts 
and islands, and on the main-land she was the successful 
rival of Sparta. At the same time sculptors and architects, 
painters and dramatic poets were producing the most per- 
fect works of art that the world has ever seen ; and the 
liberal encouragement offered to talent drew to Athens the 
greatest intellects from every land. Athenian citizens spent 
a large portion of their time in discussing public affairs, for 
private business was chiefly in tlie hands of slaves, who 
were three or four times as numerous as the freemen. 
Hence, it happened that the whole mass of citizens was 
better trained to civic duties than was ever any similar 
class of people, before or since. We must not imagine 



74 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



Attic slaves to have been in condition at all like the 
Helots (^io8). The Athenians were of more gentle and 
generous nature than the Spartans, and no cases of cruelty 
are on record. 

125. The perpetual rivalry of the two leading states 
occasioned several wars, one of which grew from a dispute 
for the control of the Delphic oracle. Pericles, though 
free from superstition himself, well understood its power 
over others, and he desired to enlist Apollo on the side of 

Athens. The rashness of the younger Athen- 
'*'*^ ians led to a sad defeat at Coronaea in Boeotia; 
and most of the allied cities in central Greece now re- 
sumed their oligarchic governments under the influence 
of Sparta (§105). 

126. P>om these and many other elements of strife arose 
the Peloponnesian war, which, for twenty-seven years ( B. 
C. 431-404), involved all Greece in calamities. Almost 
every summer a Spartan army ravaged the fields of Attica, 
and the people took refuge within the walls of Athens. 
Every nook was crowded ; a plague broke out among the 
swarming population, who ascribed it to the wrath of 
Apollo, the especial protector of the Spartans. Their com- 
plaints were loud against Pericles, whose cautious policy 
they were unable to understand. He was even accused of 
embezzling the public funds, and was heavily fined. 

127. Pericles bore their unjust accusations with admir- 
able patience, but his strength was now broken by afflic- 
tion. His son and nearest friends had died of the plague; 
a slow fever seized the great statesman himself As he lay 
dying, his friends around his bed were talking of his great 
deeds, when he interrupted them, saying, "All that you 
are praising was due to the favor of Heaven. What I 
pride myself upon is that no Athenian has ever had oc- 
casion to mourn on my account." 



THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 75 

128. The war grew more cruel every year. Mitylene, 
having revolted against Athens, was brought back to its 
allegiance by its own popular party, which outnumbered 
the friends of Sparta. Nevertheless, the Athenian assembly 
which was called to decide the fate of the recaptured city — 
carried away by the eloquence of Cleon, a violent dem- 
agogue — sentenced all the men of Mitylene to death, and 
its women to slavery! The author of this brutal decree 
dispatched a galley to Lesbos with orders for its immediate 
execution. But a night's rest brought a better mind to the 
Athenians; they revoked their cruel act, and sent another 
galley in still greater haste to save the lives of the doomed 
people. 

129. Happily, it arrived in time; the Mityleneans were 
spared, but the walls of their city were destroyed, and their 
fleet was absorbed into that of Athens. Corcyra soon after- 
ward suffered a reign of terror in which brothers murdered 
brothers, and fathers their own sons. Sparta, afraid of her 
slaves, treacherously murdered 2000 Helots, the bravest 
and, therefore, the most dangerous of their class. Floods, 
earthquake, and pestilence combined with the evil passions 
of men to destroy unhappy Hellas. 

130. All parties were now wearied out, and, in 421 B. 
C. , the Peace of Nicias provided for fift}' years' truce be- 
tween Sparta and Athens. Unhappily, war soon broke out 
again, through the ambition of Arcibi'ades,^a brilliant young 
Athenian, whose genius might have made him the glory 
of his native city, but who was in fact the chief occasion 
of its ruin. He persuaded his countrymen to take part 
in a war between the Doric and Ionic colonists in Sicily; 
and was one of the three generals who commanded the 
Athenian forces. But he was soon called home to answer 
a charge of sacrilege : namely, of having burlesqued the 
Eleusinian Mysteries (§96) in a drunken frolic. He took 
refuge with the Spartans, and betrayed to them all the 



76 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

plans of the Athenians. The Sicilian expedition ended in 
a miserable failure. The Athenian fleet was destroyed in 
the harbor of Syracuse; the soldiers- perished either in 
battle or of starvation; and the few who survived were sold 
as slaves. 

131. All the rivals, enemies, and unwilling subjects of 
Athens now took advantage of her distress. Sparta made 
a treaty with the king of Persia, offering to put him in 
possession of the whole Cirecian territory north of the 
Corinthian Gulf, with all the islands and coasts of the 
^gean. But Alcibiades had found a new refuge with the 
Persian governor of Asia Minor, and by skillful flatteries he 
partly defeated the Spartan plans. By several great naval 
victories he regained control of the grain-fleets in the Black 
Sea, and so relieved a famine in Athens. For these serv- 
ices his offenses were pardoned, and he was made general 
with unlimited powers. 

132. Persian gold and Spartan skill, however, turned the 
scale against the Athenians; and they suffered a defeat 

at ^gos-Potami, which ended their supremacy 
in Greece. The Spartans besieged and took 
Athens. Its walls were destroyed, and its government was 
remodeled on the Spartan pattern. The chief power was 
committed to Thirty Tyrants, who for eight months sub- 
jected the citizens to fines, imprisonment, or death at their 
will. The second period of Spartan supremacy ( B. C. 
404-371) was marked by the overthrow of free govern- 
ments throughout Greece. 

133. But Sparta's leadership was not easy to maintain. 
The king of Persia was enraged by the aid she had given 
to his rebellious brother (§ 58), and a league of many 
Grecian states, disgusted by her overbearing tyranny, 
brought on the Corinthian war. Sparta had her best and 
greatest man, the king Ages'ila'us, for her chief commander, 
and gained decisive victories over her enemies at Corinth 



DEATH OF SOCRATES. 77 

and Coronaea. A great naval battle with the Athenians 
and Persians off Cnidus was less fortunate to her, for it 
resulted in the destruction of the greater part of her fleet 
and th'e rapid decline of her power. 

134. Athens meanwhile had been rescued from Spartan 
rule by Thrasybu'lus, one of her exiled citizens, who mus- 
tered an army of his fellow-exiles and defeated the Spartan 
forces at Phy'le and Muny'chia. The laws of Solon were 
restored. The only blot upon the happy time was the ex- 
ecution of the philosopher Soc'rates — one of the best and 
wisest men that ever lived — on a false charge of having 
introduced a new worship and corrupted the Athenian 
youth. Socrates was, in fact, too wise to believe in all the 
superstitions of the Greeks; but he was also too prudent to 
destroy the childish faith of his pupils until they were able 
to receive something better in the place of it. He refused 
to accept his life on the condition of forbearing to teach; 
for the great aim and passion of his life was to promote 
virtue and wisdom in the young. He spent the thirty days 
of his imprisonment in cheerful converse with his friends, 
expressing to the last his firm conviction of the soul's im- 
mortality. When the appointed moment arrived, he drank 
the poison hemlock and calmly expired. 

135. The Spartans, weary at length of the disastrous war, 
sent a messenger to the Persian court, begging the Great 
King to interfere and settle the affairs of Greece. This 
was his sentence: "King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the 
cities in Asia and the islands of Clazom'ente and Cyprus 
should belong to him. He thinks it just to leave all the 
other Grecian cities, both small and great, independent, 
except Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros, which are to belong 
to Athens as of old."- — B. C. 387. 

136. Spartan power having fallen, Thebes became the 
next leader of the Greeks. This Boeotian city had been 
for some years governed by a Spartan garrison ; it was 



78 THE ANCIENT WORLD, 

rescued by the bold and ingenious contrivance of one of 
its own noblemen, and became the head of a new confed- 
eracy numbering seventy cities. The Theban Epam'inon'das 
was the greatest general whom Greece ever produced, and 
his purity of character was still more admirable than his 
military genius. At Leuctra, a few miles north 
^^'' west of Platsea, the most fiercely contested of 
all Grecian battles was fought, resulting in a victory for 
Epaminondas, which ended the leadership of Sparta. 

137. Four times he invaded the Peloponnesus, where he 
established an Arcadian League to balance the Spartan 
power, and called home the exiled Messenians, who had 
been for three hundred years a bamshed race, but whom he 
now settled in the homes of their fathers (^5 109). Sparta 
itself, which in all the centuries of its existence had never 
seen an enemy in arms, was threatened by the Thebans, 
l)ut it was saved by the energy of its old king Agesilaus. 
During his fourth invasion of southern Greece, Epami- 
nondas was slain in the fatal battle of Mantinea. With his 
death the Theban power fell, and Athens enjoyed another 
short period of leadership in Greece. 

138. The kingdom of Macedon on the north had now 
become powerful enough to be regarded with fear. The 
Macedonians were barbarians (§ 102), but their kings 
claimed to be descendants of Hercules, and as such had 
been admitted to a share in the Olympic Games. Philip 
II, one of the ablest of these kings, had in his boyhood 
been a hostage at Thebes, where he had learned the art 
of war from Epaminondas. He had, moreover, become 
l)rOficient in the Greek language; while he had acutely 
studied the fatal dissensions among the Greeks, which 
promised a fair field for his talents both as general and 
as orator. 

139. Soon after his return to Macedon and assumption 
of the crown, Athens became weakened by the "Social 



PHILIP'S SUPREMACY. 79 



War," in which many of her late allies and subject states 
turned against her. Philip seized the opportunity to con- 
quer all her dependencies on the Thermaic Gulf. Then, 
availing himself of the Sacred War* to interfere in central 
Greece, he was made a member of the Amphictyonic 
Council (§ 104) and commander of its forces. 

140. Demos'thenes, the great Athenian orator, saw the 
danger and used all his eloquence to avert it. It was in 
vain; gold and persuasion were working secretly for Philip, 
while his arms were advancing in the north ; and at length 
the great battle of Chaerone'a, in which his 

B. C -^^8 

army defeated that of Thebes and Athens, 
made all Greece subject to Macedon. The Congress of 
Corinth, the next year, acknowledged Philip's supremacy, 
and appointed him to command the Hellenic forces in a 
war which was now preparing against Persia. But Philip 
was murdered at a feast, and this new enterprise was left 
to the yet greater genius of his son Alexander. 

Point out, on Maps 2 and 3, Marathon, Salamis, Platcea, Eretria, 
Carystus, Thebes, Coronaea, Chseronea, Corcyra, Corinth. The Ther- 
maic Gulf. Macedonia. The Hellespont. Thrace. 

The authorities for this chapter are the same as for the preceding. 

NOTES. 

1. Miltiades, though an Atlienian, had been prince or "tyrant" of 
the Chersonese— that narrow tongue of land north of the fleUespont — 
owing to a curious incident that occurred during tlie first reign of Pisis- 
tratus. 

His uncle, also named Miltiades, was sitting one day at the door of 
his mansion, when he saw appi-oaching him a group of men whom he 
knew to be foreigners by their singular dre.ss and by their long spears. 
With his usual courtesy he invited them to become his guests; the 
strangers gladly consented, and soon told their story. 

Tliey were Thracians from the Chersonese, where their countrymen 
were even now hard pressed by the hostility of a neighlKirint; tribe. 
These men had been sent to ask direction from Apollo at Deljjlii (\ ii'.'i, and 
had been commanded by the priestess to chooNe for their ally the first 
man who should offer them hospitality after they quitted the temple. 
They had traveled all through Phocis and Bceotia without receiving 



■■■■ So called because the Phocians seized the treasures of Apollo's 
temple at Delphi, and the Thebans undertook to punish the sacrilege. 



8o THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



any attention; now they gladly hailed Miltiades as their leader, and 
begged him to found a Greek colony on the Hellespont. It happened 
that Miltiades, as well as many other nobles, was on bad terms with 
Pisistratus. A large party of Athenians joined him in establishing an 
independent state in the Chersonese, and victory rewarded the Tliracian 
guests for their obedience to the oracle. As Miltiades had no son, 
his sovereignty passed in turn to his two nephews, of whom one com- 
manded atMarathon. He had drawn upon him the wrath of Darius 
by C()n<iU('ring fur Athens the two islands of Lemnos and Imbros, so 
that, when the Persian fleet advanced in B. C. 4110, he had to flee and 
take refuge in his native city. 

Here he was chosen to be one of the ten generals who commanded 
one day at a time by turns; and it was his energetic spirit that mainly 
decided the question whetlier at Marathon ten thousand Athenians 
should attack one hundred thousand of wliat were hitherto regarded as 
far better soldiers than themselves. 

The other states of Greece stood aloof; only the friendly little city of 
Platsea sent all the troops she had— one thousand men— and these ar- 
rived just on the eve of battle. The Greek force was drawn up on the 
eastern slope of the mountains that overlook the plain of Marathon. 
"The trumpet sounded for action; and, chanting the hymn of battle, 
the little army bore down upon the liost of the foe. . . . Instead of 
advancing at the usual slow pace of the phalanx, Miltiatles brought his 
men on at a run. They were all trained in tiie exercises of the paUestra, 
so that there was no fear of their ending the cliarge in breathless ex- 
haustion; and it was of tlie deepest importance tor him tO traverse as 
rapidly as possible the mile or so of level ground that lay between the 
mouutain-fort and the Persian outposts, and so to get his troops into 
close action before tlie Asiatic cavalry could mount, form, and maneuver 
against him." 

The combat that ff)llowed is ranked by Sir E. Creasy, the author 
above quoted, among the "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World;" for 
on its result "depended, not merely the fate of two armies, but the 
whole future progress of human civilization." " It secured for mankind 
the intellectual treasures of Athens, the growth of free institutions, the 
liberal enlightenment of the western world, and the gradual ascendency 
for manj' ages of the great principles of European civilization." 

Soon after the battle, Miltiades asked the Athenians for seventy ships 
furnished with men and stores. He did not nialci' known his purpose, 
except that it was to enrich Athens. Glad and grateful for the victory, 
the people could refuse him nothing, and, moreover, they imagined that 
he was going to surprise some treasure city of Darius and gain wealth 
for them all. But this time Miltiades was only bent on gratifving a 
private revenge. He laid siege to Paros, which'was stronglv foitifled, 
and repelled all his attacks. Grievously wounded, he returned to Athens, 
where he was immediately brought into court on the capital charge of 
having deceived the people. His friends could bring forward no other 
defense than the two nanxes " Lemnos" and " Marathon." These availed 
to commute his sentence of death into a flne of ffi2,.500, which covered 
the cost of the expedition; Init, during the year following his great 
victory, Miltiades died in i)rison, unable to discharge this debt to the 
state, which was afterwards paid by his son. 

2. The ambition of Themistocles set nim against all who were in 
power before him, of whom the greatest was Aristides. After the vic- 
tory at Marathon, he became moody and restless, and remarked to his 
friends that the trophy of Miltiades would not suffer him to sleep. His 
anibitiouj however, together with his great ability, was of great serv- 
ice to his country; for he alone seems to have perceived that the 
battle at ilarathon was not the end, but only the beginning, of the 
struggle with the Persian Empire, and that Athens must be prepared 
by increasing her naval power. To this end he i^ersuaded his fellow- 
citizens to spend the revenue from the silver mines at Laurium in 
building ships, instead of dividing it, as had been usual, among the 
free-born Athenians. A war Ijetween Athens and .Egina furnished the 
pretext; l)ut, when news arrived in Greece that Xerxes was mustering his 
enormous forces for a new invasion, Themistocles (lersuaded the Athen- 
ians to make peace with their rival neighbors, and join with all faithful 
Greeks in the defense against Persia. He was the soul of the movement 



NOTES. 8 1 



that ended in the viotory of Salamis, and afterwards secured the re- 
building of Athens and tlie lortiflcation of lier port in spite of the jeal- 
ous opposition of the Spartans. 

But the gJory of Theniistocles ended with the Persian wars. He had 
already enriched himself by unfair means. He was now accused of 
having part in the treacherous plans of Pausanias (^ 119). After extensive 
wanderings he took refuge with the Persian king who had succeeded 
Xerxes, and i>romised to aid him in conquering the Greeks. Artaxerxes 
was (k'lighti'd, and gave him at once three cities, whose tribute would 
provide his support. But, with all his selfish ambition, Themistocles 
probably never intended really to betray his country; and, to avoid ful- 
filling his promise to the king, he is said to have poisoned himself. He 
had been in exile twenty-two years. 

3. Alcibiades was the most popular Athenian of his day; not only 
on account of his personal beauty and brilliant talents, but of his great 
wealth, which, joined with his gayety of temper, led him to provide 
amusements for the people on a most liberal scale. When the Sicilian 
envoys applied to Athens for help, he eagerly seized the opportunity 
for adventure, hoping also to lead his fellow-citizens to the conquest of 
Carthage. 

Nicias was more prudent; he persuaded the Athenians to send mes- 
sengers into Sicily to find out whether the people of Egesta were able 
to fulfill their share in the undertaking. But the messengers were de- 
ceived by a curious trick. They saw in the temple at Egesta, a mag- 
nificent display of altar-furniture, which they supposed to be solid gold, 
but whicli was in fact only silver-gilt. They were invited to a long 
succession of private entertainments, and were surprised to find every 
house supplied with glittering table-service of gold and silver; not 
knowing that the cunning Egesteans passed on these precious vttensils 
from house to house. So they returned to Athens to urge an expedition 
in aid of such wealthy allies. The plan was very popular; volunteers 
crowded the recruiting offices, and the generals had difficulty in restrict- 
ing the number that should be allowed to go. 

The Dorian League in Sicily had for its head the powerful city of 
Syracuse, which had been founded by Corinthians about B. C. 734, and, 
In the war then raging in Greece, it had joined the Peloponnesian Con- 
federacy. The great operation of the war was the siege of Syracuse by 
the Athenian fleet. After its failure, the besiegers might still have 
withdrawn in safety, but for an eclipse of the moon, which occurred on 
the very night before their proposed departure. The soothsayers de- 
clared that the army must remain just where it was for three times 
nine days. Nicias was too superstitious to follow his better judgment; 
the Syracusans heard of his plans, and, after defeating the Athenians 
in a naval battle, blocked up the entrance to the harbor, and cut off 
every way of escape, either by land or sea. 

Alcibiades, having been condemned to death by the Athenian judges, 
made himselif a great favorite, first with the Spartans, and afterwards 
with the Persians, with whom he successively took refuge. But the 
spoiled child of Athens was at length restored to her favor. "The rec- 
ords of proceedings against him were sunk in the sea, his property 
was restored, the priests were ordered to recant their curses, and he was 
'appointed commander-in-chief of all the land and sea forces." Some 
reverses, however, gave new power to his enemies; he went into volun- 
tary exile, and ended his days as a sort of independent chief in the 
Thracian Chersonesus. 

4. This was Pelopidas, a young Theban of great wealth and influence, 
who had taken refuge at Athens B. C. 382, on the seizure of the citadel 
of Thebes by the Spartans. Here, in secret agreement with Phyllidas, 
secretary of the Theban government, he planned with his fellow-exiles 
the deliverance of their native city. Phyllidas invited the principal 
Spartan leaders to a banquet at his house, and when they were some- 
\vhat stupid with food and wine, informed them that he was going to 
introduce some Theban ladies. At this moment, a messenger brought a 
letter to Ardiias, the chief general, begging his immediate attention, 
as it contained a matter of importance. But the general thrust the let- 
ter under the cushions of his couch, saying, "Serious matters to-morrow." 

Pelopidas and eleven young friends, who had arrived that day in 
Hist.-B ^ 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



the city, disguised as hunters, now entered the hall in the long white 
veils and festive garb of women. They dispersed themselves carelessly 
among the guests, and were courteously received ; but, as one of the 
Spartan lords attempted to lift the veil of the person who was address- 
ing him, he received a mortal wound. Swords were now drawn from 
beneath the silken robes, and no Spartan left the room alive. The 
prisons were thrown open, and 5(X) honorable citizens, who had suffered 
a three years' captivity rather than submit to Spartan rule, joined tlie 
forces of" the revolutionists. As day dawned, the people were summoned 
to the market-place, and a unanimous vote affirmed tlie independence 
of Thebes. The Spartan garrison in tlie Cadraea (see note 1, Ch. VI), 
deprived of its officers, and despairing of reinforcements, speedily sur- 
rendered. 

For fifteen years after tills, Pelopidas rendered distinguished service 
to his native city, both in war and diplomacy, and fell in battle, in de- 
fense of the Thessalian allies of Tliebes against the tyrant Alexander of 
Phera?, B. C. 364. 

5. Epaminondas, though of noble birth, was born and reared in pov- 
erty. His principal teacher was a Pythagorean philosopher (^ lo^), Lysis 
of Tarentum; and he illustrated the highest virtues of the sect in the 
truthfulness, purity, and justice of his character. Though Pelopidas 
was his dearest friend, he took no part in the scheme above mentioned 
(note 4), because it involved deceit and tlie possible shedding of innocent 
blood; but he constantly urged a manly resistance of the Theban youth 
to the Spartans, and had raised their confidence by niatching them in 
athletic contests with these rivals. 

An eight years' war followed the expulsion of the Spartans from 
Thebes. All the Boeotian cities, excepting two, cast off the Spartan in- 
fluence (^10.5) and formed popular governments, joining tin inselves at 
the same time in a new "Boeotian League," with Thebes at its head. 

In the spring of 371 B. C, a congress of all the Grecian states met at 
Sparta, for the purpose of putting an end to the war. When the treaty 
was drawn up, Sparta signed it for the whole Laconian confederacy; but 
each of the other states was expected to sign separately. Athens con- 
sented to this, but Elpaminondas, representing Theijes, clamed his right 
to ratify the treaty in the name of tlie whole Bceotian League, of which 
his citj' was as truly the head as Sparta of Lacouia. But this was de- 
nied hini, and the war between Thebes and Sparta still went on. Cle- 
ombrotus, the Spartan king, invading Boeotia, was defeated and slain 
in the battle of Leuctra, where the new tactics of P'paiiiinoiKlas were 
first put to the proof. The second Spartan supremacy, \\ljich had lasted 
34 years Irom the battle of iEgos-Potami (!;132), now gave way to a nine 
years' supremacy of Thebes, which was to end B. C. 362, at the death of 
Epaminondas. 

6. Agesilaus II. ascended the Spartan throne B. C. .398, on the death 
of his brother Agis. In one of tlie earliest years of his reign he led an 
army into Asia, defeated two powerful satraps, Tissaphernes and Phar- 
naViazus, and was about to advance to the very heart of the Persian 
empire, when the five epliors, who were supreme in Sparta, even over 
the kings, summoned him liome. He wrote back, "We have reduced 
most of Asia, driven back the barbarians, made arms abundant in Ionia. 
But since you bid me, according to the decree, come home, I shall fol- 
low my letter, and maj', perhaps, be even before it. For my command 
is not mine, but my country's and her allies." He immediately marched 
by Xerxes' route, from Asia to Greece. 

Sparta was now engaged in war against a powerful league of states, 
and had just gained a great victory over the allies at Corintli. Agesi- 
laus, hearing of it, exclaimed, "Alas for Greece! she has killed enough 
of her sons to have conquered all the barbarians." He iiimself defeated 
the allies at Coroneia, in Bceotia, and ravaged the territories of Argos 
and Corinth. It was with his full ai>proval that Phoebidas, a Spartan 
captain, seized the Cadniea in 382 B. C, and that eleven years later 
Tliclies was excluded from the peace, and the fatal campaign of Leuctra 
l)eg-ni. In the spring of 361 B. C, Agesilaus, now eighty years of age, 
crossed the sea with a band of soldiers, to the aid of Tachos, king of 
Egypt, who had revolted against Persia. The appearance of the little, 
lame, old man, a true Spartan in his contempt for kingly pomp and 



NOTES. 83 



splendor, excited ridicule among the Egyptians; but wlien Agesilaus 
transferred liis aid to Nectanahis, who, in turn, had risen against Tachos, 
tlie importance of the little Spartan nas felt, for Nectanahis obtained 
the throne. Agesilaus died on his marcli to f'yrene, whence he was to 
liavc sailed to Hparta; his body, embalmed in wax, was conveyed with 
great honors to his native city. An ancient oracle had foretold tliat 
Sparta would lose her power under a lame sovereign. The prediction 
wa.s fulfilled, but through no tault of the king, who lias been justly 
called "Sparta's most perfect citizen and most consumniate general, in 
many ways, perhaps, her greatest man." He had all the virtues of his 
countrymen without their too common faults of avarice and deceit. 
His remark upon the victory at Corinth, shows that his patriotism was 
not narrowed to the boundaries of liis own state. Many incidents are 
preserved which prove liis warm and tender allection, Ijotli for his own 
children and for friends, — a rare trait among the Spartans. 

He was the nineteenth king of the Proclid or Eurypontid line. It 
will be remembered (§108) that there were two lines of Spartan kings 
ijfvmed from twin grandsons of Hercules, Procles and P'urysthenes; but 
Eurypon, the third Proclid king, gave his name to his house. 

7. Demosthenes, the greatest of ancient orators, was born about 385 
B.C. He was only .seven years old when his father died, and the ample 
property which was left for Demosthenes and his sister, in the care of 
three kinsmen, was shamefully squandered before the boy was able to 
plead for his rights in the Athenian courts. His sense of wrong, mean- 
while, fostered in him habits of self-reliance and independent judgment, 
and incited him to a diligent study of oratory, by which he hoped to 
win at last a favorable decision. His discouragements were many; for 
he had a weak constitution and defective utterance; but his persever- 
ance was rewarded, and, at the age of twenty -one, he regained from one 
of his guardians a great part of his property. The power which he 
had gained for his own interests he now devoted to the service of his 
country. Philip of JNIacedon had seized some possessions of Atliens 
north of the ^Egean, and was daily increasing his influence among the 
states of Greece. Demosthenes was almost the only Greek who had the 
courage and the honesty to withstand the l^ribes and flatteries of the 
king. His Philippics are the most splendid and spirited remonstrances 
against unjust power that any language contains. His Olynthiac Ora- 
tions did indeed move his countrymen to tit out an expedition for the 
relief of Olynthus when besieged by Philip; but the rescue was pre- 
vented by a treacherous plot in the town itself, and the ■wiiole Chalcidic 
peninsula fell into the power of Macedon. 

After the death of Philip, Demosthenes was the soul of the new 
struggle for Greek independence. The Athenians, though submitting to 
Alexander, steadily resisted his demand for the surrender of their great 
orator. Demosthenes was subsequently thrown into prison through an 
intrigue of the Macedonian party, and escaping with the secret permis- 
sion of the magistrates, remained in exile until the death of Alexander. 
A state-trireme was then sent to bring him back in triumph to his na- 
tive city, and the most glorious day of his life seemed to mark a new 
dawn of Athenian freedom. The "Lamian" War," however, ended in 
defeat (ji 176), and Antipater, regent of Macedonia, advanced upon Athens. 
Deserted by all her allies, that city was forced to overthrow her free 
government at the jNIaeedonian dictation, to receive a foreign garrison 
in her fortress of Munychia, and condemn to death Demosthenes and his 
friends, who had fled at the approach of the conqueror. Demosthenes had 
taken refuge in the temple of Poseidon at Calauria. He had long carried 
poison about him, in expectation of such an emergency; and, by its 
means, he escaped the officer of Antipater, dying B. C. 322. 



* So called because its principal action was the siege of I,amia, in Thessaly, which 
was held by Antipater, the Macedonian Regent, against the confederate Greeks. 



CHAPTER TX. 

GREEK LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND ART. 




SPT is time for a brief sketch of those poets, historians, 
IB and philosophers, to whom — even more than to 

' her great generals and statesmen — Greece owes her 

fame; and whose dominion in the minds of civilized men 
has never been shaken, though theii native land has for 
ages been trampled by barbarians. 

142. For one practical reason, if for no other, poetry 
must liave existed in (Ireek literature long before prose. 
The art of writing, though \ery early known to the Greeks, 
was for a long time used almost exclusively for inscriptions 
on bronze or marble tablets in temples and palaces. There 
were no cheap and convenient materials for writing; so that 
a ship-master, whom Homer mentions in the Odyssey, had 
no written list of his cargo, but carried the items in his 
memory. Now a poet might produce his song or epic, 
and retain it, by the help of rhythm, in his memory, until 
others had learned it from his lips (^94); but this would 
be almost impossible in the case of long compositions in 
prose. 

(84) - 



HOMER AND HESIOD. 85 

143. A better reason is found in the intense love of 
poetry and music, which was universal among the Greeks. 
All their life, public and private, in war or peace, was 
associated with song. Hymns to the gods were probably 
their earliest compositions. Triumphal odes welcomed the 
victor at the Games (§102) home to his nati\e city. The 
ten thousand Athenians rushed down from the heights, and 
across the plain of Marathon, singing a battle-hymn, which 
the poet ^s'chylus, who was one of them, has preserved 
for us. The Greek ships moved into the combat at Salamis 
to a similar strain: "On, sons of the Greeks! Strike for 
the freedom of your country! Strike for the freedom of 
your children and your wives! — for the shrines of your 
fathers' gods and the sepulchers of your sires." 

144. The two great epic (narrative and heroic) poets of 
Hellas were Homer and He'siod. Homer' was an Ionian 
of Asia — of what city can not now be known, though 
many contended for the honor of his birth. An English 
poet has written : 

"Seven ancient cities claimed the Homer dead, 
Through which the living Homer begged his bread." 

This may not be literally true, but it is probable that the 
"Father of Poetry" lived a sad and wandering life, shad- 
owed in his old age by blindness. He lived about 850 
B. C. Besides the Iliad, which has been mentioned (§91, 
92), he was the author of the Odyssey, which described the 
adventures of Ulys'ses, king of Ithaca, after the fall of 
Troy. 

145. Hesiod-lived about a hundred years later, in Bceotia, 
where he tended his flocks upon the slopes of Mt. Helicon, 
sacred to the Muses. In contrast with Homer, who sang 
the mighty deeds of princes and heroes, he depicted the 
homely, rustic scenes with which he was familiar. His 
chief poem is the "Works and Days," consisting mainly of 
maxims for common life. Besides this is the "Theogony," 



86 THE A NCI EXT WORLD. 



which described the origin of the world, and of the gods 
and heroes; but it is beheved to have been composed 
by some poet of his school, not by Hesiod himself. The 
poems of Homer and Hesiod constituted the "Bible of 
the Greeks ; " for these iirst put into permanent form the 
beliefs concerning the gods. 

146. Epic poetry naturally flourished most while the 
kings ruled in Greece (^93, loi), for it celebrated the 
doings of gods and heroes, from whom the kings sup- 
posed themselves to be descended. When the common 
people gained power, lyric and dramatic poetry sprang to 
life. The two great lyric poets of Sparta were Tyrtae'us 
and Alc'man ; but neither was Spartan-born. The one was 
Athenian, and the other a Lydian Slave. The story goes, 
that the Spartans, being in great distress during the second 
Messenian war (^ 109), were directed, by the oracle, to 
borrow a leader from Athens. Not daring to disobey 
the priestess, but not wishing to render any real aid, the 
Athenians sent tlie poor, lame school-master, Tyrtaeus, to 
be the general of their rivals. But Apollo was not to be 
thwarted. The stirring songs of Tyrtfeus^ did more than 
martial feats could have done to reinforce the courage of 
the Spartans; they immediately began to gain victories, 
and the lame school-master became the hero of the war. 

147. Simon'ides lived during the Persian wars, and his 
songs celebrate the heroes who fought and fell at Mara- 
thon, Thermopyl^, Salamis, and Platcea. Pin'dar was a 
Theban poet, but he studied at Athens, and was honored 
by all the states of Greece. His triumphal odes in honor 
of victors at the Games (^^102) are all that have come 
down to us, though he wrote many hymns, dirges, and 
processional songs. 

148. ^^schylus was the father of dramatic, as Homer 
was of epic i)oetry. The first tragedies and comedies were 
recited by a chorus alone, and were not really dramas, as 



GREEK POETS AND HISTORIANS. 87 

we understand the term. Both had their origin in the 
songs and dances which were part of the festivals of 
Dionysus; and these festivals, which occurred every spring, 
in Athens, continued to be the occasion when new plays 
were produced. So fond were the Athenians of this sort 
of entertainment, that they would sit all day long in the 
theater, while ten or twelve plays were successively per- 
formed. Their theater was open to the sky, and, from the 
hill-side on which it was situated, commanded a magnifi- 
cent view of land and sea. 

149. ^schylus is distinguished by the rugged grandeur 
of his dramas; Soph'ocles, for the exquisite perfection of 
his art; Eurip'ides, for his tender and pathetic pictures of 
every-day life. These three are confessedly at the head 
of the Athenian tragic drama, and were unsurpassed by 
any ancient poets. Aristoph'anes, on the other hand, was 
the master of comedy. In his fun-producing plays, he 
fearlessly attacked the greatest Athenians of his day — the 
half divine heroes, and even the gods themselves. 

150. If we turn to prose literature, we find that Greek 
historical writing, like philosophy and poetry (§100, 152), 
had its origin among the lonians of Asia. Hecatse'us, of 
Miletus, was the first prose-writer of note. He traveled 
extensively, and wrote books on history and geography. 
Herod'otus, the "Father of History," was a native of 
Halicarnassus (§101), but he early removed to Samos 
and learned the Ionian dialect. He traveled in many 
lands, and took the greatest pains to ascertain the truth 
of events which he wished to narrate. His theme was the 
great conflict between the Persians and the Greeks; but 
he found occasion for many interesting accounts of other 
nations. There is a story that he recited the whole nine 
books of his history at one of the Olympic Ciames, and 
that Thucyd'ides, then a boy of thirteen years, hearing him, 
was moved to tears of admiration. The assembly greeted 



88 THE AA-CIEiVr WORLD. 



the great work with shouts of deHghted applause, and 
conferred on each book the name of one of the Muses. 

151, Thucydides was the greatest philosophic historian 
among the Greeks; some competent critics declare him 
to be tlie greatest of any age or nation. He wrote the 
history of the Peloponnesian War (^^126) to its twenty-first 
year; and his account of its causes and incidents is our 
best authority concerning the relations of Greek states and 
parties. He was an actor in the events which he describes. 
Xenophon was a pupil of Socrates (§134); he continued 
the history which Thucydides left unfinished, and wrote a 
narrative of the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand" Greeks 
from the mad expedition of Cyrus the Younger (§58). 
He had accompanied the army as a volunteer, but, when 
the Greek generals had been slain, he was chosen one of 
the leaders of the homeward march. His story presents 
a lively picture of the countries through which the route 
lay. Among his other works are a defense of Socrates, 
and a romance, called the Cyropoedia, concerning Cyrus 
the Great. 

152. The "Seven Wise Men* of Greece" flourished 
during the sixth century B. C. They were Solon of 
Athens (§112), Tha'les of Miletus, Pit'tacus of Mitylene, 
Perian'der of Corinth, Cle'obu'lus of Lindus, Chi'lo of 
Sparta, and Bi'as of Priene. ( Notice that four of the seven 
lived in the Asiatic colonies, ^100.) Thales^ was also 
celebrated as the founder of the earliest school of Greek 
philosophy, called the Ionic. His most illustrious successor 
in that school was An'axag'oras, the teacher of Pericles, 
Socrates, and Euripides. He, first of the Greeks, believed 
in a creative Mind as the author and ruler of the universe: 
and to this purer faith we may trace the elevation of 
spirit which enabled Pericles to bear serenely the unjust 
reproaches of the mob, and Socrates to look calmly into 
the face of Death (§134). Anaxagoras, like his great 



GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. 89 

pupil afterward, was tried in the Athenian courts for im- 
piety; but his Hfe was spared on the condition of his 
departure from Athens. 

153. The second school of (Ireek philosophy took its 
name from Elea, in Italy. Xenoph'anes, the founder of 
the Eleatic school, censured Homer and Hesiod for ascrib- 
ing human passions and weaknesses to the 

gods, and taught that the Creator is one. • ■ -^ 

Still more important was the Pythagorean school, which 
also had its headquarters in Italy. Pythag'oras, of Samos, 
its founder, had studied not only with earlier Greek phi- 
losophers, but with Egyptian priests (^75), 
and, perhaps, with Babylonian and Hindu 
sages. He made some great discoveries in music and 
mathematics; but his most important work was that of a 
religious teacher. He believed himself inspired of Heaven 
to make known a purer mode of life than was prevalent 
among the Greeks. The last forty years of his life were 
spent at Crotona, in Italy, where he became the head of 
a numerous and powerful society. Its members bound 
themselves, by strict rules, to temperance and self-control, 
and aspired to a serene life, above the dominion of the 
passions. Similar clubs were formed in many cities of 
Italy; and the Pythagoreans numbered many thousands — 
among them some of the best and noblest men in Greece. 

154. The death of Socrates has been mentioned (§134). 
Though one of the wisest of the Greeks, he did not teach 
any system of philosophy, but aimed rather to put his 
disciples in the way of finding the truth for themselves. 
He was unattractive in person, humble and simple in life ; 
he received no payment for his teachings, but taught in 
the street or the market-place, wherever any chose to 
listen. The greatest of his disciples was Pla'to, the founder 
of the Academic School, so called because his lectures were 
given in the grove of Academus, near a gate of Athens. 



go THE ANCIENT IVORLD. 

We are indebted to Plato for most of what we know of 
Socrates; for a great portion of his writings is made up of 
dialogues, in which Socrates had part. His own philos- 
ophy is the highest and purest of which the ancient world 
could boast. 

155. Aristotle/ the tutor of Alexander the Great, was 
the founder of the Peripatetic School of philosophy. His 
lectures, at Athens, drew about him a throng of listeners 
from all the Hellenic cities in Europe and Asia; and he 
discoursed to them while walking up and down in the 
shady groves which surrounded his Lyceum. Aristotle 
was an acute and patient student of physical, as well as 
mental, science. When Alexander, the greatest of his 
pupils, became the master of Asia, he caused rare col- 
lections of animals and plants to be sent from all his 
provinces to his old teacher, who found in them materials 
for his great works on natural history. 

The mental philosophy of Aristotle continued for two 
thousand years predominant in Europe. 

156 In the arts of architecture and sculpture the pre- 
eminence of the Greeks is even more decided than in 
literature. Greek poetry and philosophy have been rivaled, 
and, in some respects, surpassed; but the greatest modern 
sculptor admits the impossibility of attaining that perfection 
of repose and beauty which distinguishes the works of . 
Phid'ias and Praxit'eles.'^ The stirring scenes of the Persian 
War aroused all minds to their highest pitch of energy; 
and the seventy years of Athenian supremacy were the 
blossoming time of Hellenic genius. The necessity of 
rebuilding ruined Athens afforded the opportunity which 
Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles gladly embraced, to 
make their idolized city the glory of all lands. 

157. Then arose the Par'thenon, or temple of Athena, 
the Virgin, which, for exquisite beauty of proportion, has 
never been surpassed. Then was cast the colossal statue 



GREEK ART. 



91 



of Athena Prom'achos, from the bronze spoils of the 
Persians, which were found upon the field of Marathon. 
Its glittering helmet and spear might be seen far off at 
sea, as if the goddess were keeping perpetual guard over 
the city which bore her name. This was the work of 
Phidias, the greatest of the Greek sculptors, and, therefore, 
the greatest whom the world has yet produced. 

158. Other works of Phidias were the gold and ivory 
statue of Athena, which stood in the Parthenon ; and, most 
admirable of all, the colossal statue of Zeus, in his temple 
at Olympia, in Elis. Though size was the least of its 
merits, we may say that the figure, though sitting, was 
nearly sixty feet in height. The throne and the pedestal 
on which it stood were adorned with elaborate sculptures 
in gold. The figure itself represented perfect majesty in 
repose, as if the god were presiding at the games which 
were held in his honor. 

159. As Ionia had her schools of poetry and philosophy 
(§152), so she had her peculiar order of architecture: 
perhaps the most refined and graceful of the three Greek 
orders — equally removed from the simple grandeur of the 
Doric, and the exuberant ornament of the Corinthian. The 
most noted example of the Ionic order was the temple of 
Ar'temis, at Ephesus; of the Doric, the Parthenon, at 
Athens; of the Corinthian, the temple of the Olympian 
Zeus, begun by Pisistratus and his sons, at Athens, but 
completed 650 years after its foundation by a Roman 
emperor. 

The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer have been best translated l)y 
our countryman W. C. Bryant ; the existing Tragedies of ^-Eschylus 
and Sophocles, by Prof. Plumptre ; Herodotus, by Prof. Rawlinson. 
Translations of Thucydides and Xenophon are found in all large 
libraries. Read accounts of the Greek philosophers in Grote, Chapters 
xvi, xxxvii, Ixviii, and in K. O. Miiller's History of the Literature 
of Greece. Find descriptions of Greek Orders of Architecture in 
Fergusson's "Handbook," Book VI, Chapter ii. 



92 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



NOTES. 

1. Of the 17 or 19 cities tliat are named by various ancient writers 
as birthplaces of Homer, all but Smyrna and Chios are rejected by the 
best critics, and of these Smyrna has generally tlie choice. Nothing is 
known of Homer's life; the Greeks universally considered him as their 
greatest poet ; it was left for modern critics to question his existence, or, 
at least, his autliorship of the works whicli bear his name. In 1795, 
Prof. F. A. Wolf, of Halle, in Germany, published his startling theory 
that the Iliad and the Odyssey were never complete poems, but collec- 
tions, first made in the time of Pisistratus (j;113), of the songs of various 
minstrels, who had lived at different times during the preceding 500 
years. After long contention, the Ijest opinion seems to be that the 
two poeuis, as tbey have come down to us, are the work of one great 
poet, who may have used the rude ballads of earlier bards, but cer- 
tainly create! them anew, and gave them unity by his own powerful 
genius. 

A party of ancient critics supposed the Iliad and the Odyssey to be 
the work of two difTerent authors, but Longinus, the rhetorician, a 
courtier of Queen Zenobia (j2fi2, note), accounted for tlie contrasts found 
in the two poems by affirming tliat Homer wrote the Iliad in the vigor 
of youth, and the Odyssey in his old age. " In the Iliad, the men are 
better than the gods;'in the Odyssey, it is the reverse." In the Odyssey, 
protection and punishment are both bestowed upon mortals for just 
cause; in the Iliad, from mere caprice. Zeus, in the latter, sends a dream 
to deceive Agamemnon; Athena prompts Pandarus to treachery ; Paris, 
who has vilely abased the hospitality of Menelaus, goes uncondemned; 
while, in the Odysse.v, the gods are the avengers of wrong. It may be 
that Homer, in his earlier poem, adhered to the traditions of a ruder 
stage of society, while, in thelatter, he exj^ressed his own higher ideas 
concerning the gods. 

2. Hesiod had a brother Pcrses, wlio, instead of earning a support 
by honorable toil, spent his time in idleness or in hanging about the 
courts, where he contrived to obtain an award of more than his just 
share of his father's property. The poet, who was frugal and industri- 
ous, seems to have composed the " Works and Days," either with 
the hope of reclaiming Perses from his evil habits, or with the purpose 
of punishing him by holding him up to reproof. Ci-itics have said that 
the poem might have lieen named "Farming Operations," or "Lucky 
and Unlucky Diys," or "A Letter of Remonstrance and Advice to a 
Brother." It is in three parts; the first cites many popular stories 
and proverbs to show how much better is honest labor than laziness 
and extravagance; tlie second gives practical rules for farming; and 
the third is a religious calendar, pointing out the days which are 
favorable or unlucky for plowing, sowing, etc. Among his homely di- 
rections to tlie farmer, is the following for the winter months: "Now 
is the time to go warm-clad, thick-shod, ami with a waterproof cape 
over the shoulders, and a fur cap, lined with felt, about the head and 
ears." He adds that in cold and wet weather workmen must have more 
food, but cattle less. Sixty days after the winter-solstice, vine-dressing 
must begin; but when the snail quits the earth and climbs the trees, 
this work gives place to early harvesting. The advantages of early 
rising, especially at this busy time, are strongly urged. 

Tlie poem is full of curious pictures of primitive Greek life on a 
farm, and tells us, in fact, nearly all we know of the manners of the 
common people in those remote times. 

Tlie Theogony opens thus: "In the lieginning was Chaos, next the 
Earth, with its broad bosom, the immovable foundation of all beings, 
the vast Tartarus in tlie depth of its abyss, and Love, tlie most beauti- 
ful of all the immortal gods." 

Chaos produced Erebus and Night; Night became mother of Etlier and 
Day. Children of Heaven and Earth were Ocean and the Titans, the 
Cyclopes, and the hundred-handed giants. Uranus was the first ruler of 
creation, but he was dethroned by his son Kronos. The latter had a 
habit of devouring his own children, but Zeus, his youngest born, hav- 
ing been rescued by a trick, grew up to make war upon his father. 
The Titans fought on the side of Kronos, while with Zeus were the Cy- 



NO TES. 93 

elopes and the giants whom he had befriended. At last the Titans 
were overwhelmed by a storm of heavy stones, and were imprisoned 
as far under the earth as earth is from heaven, with Day and Night 
pacing as sentinels before the brazen gates of their dungeon. 

3. "The martial appeals ot Tyrtseus are enlivened by illustrations 
of the soldiers' duties and of the scenes and adventures of the battle- 
Held. Among the most graphic of his pictures is the description of the 
warrior advancing to the encounter 'with comprfssed lii)s and firm step, 
brandishing his spear in his hand, while his plume uods terribly from 
his helmet.' The excellence of a glorious death is placed in spirited 
contrast with the wretchedness of life purchased by loss of honor." 

4. The sayings of the Seven Wise Men were inscribed on bronze tab- 
lets in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The following are among the 
most celebrated : 

Solon, being asked how he would banish injustice from a republic, 
replied, "By making all men feel the injustice done to any." 

Pittacus declared that "the greatest blessing a man can enjoy is 
the power of doing good." Periander, that "a wise governor would pre- 
vent rather than punish crime." 

Cleobulus, that "a man should never leave his dwelling without 
considering well what he was about to do, nor reenter it without re- 
flecting on what he had done." 

Chilo, when asked what were the three most difficult things in a 
man's life, replied, "To keep a secret, to forgive injuries, and to make a 
profitable use of leisure time." His most celebrated maxim was, "Noth- 
ing in excess." Bias pronounced the most unfortunate of men to be he 
who knows not how to bear misfortune. 

5. " Thales was born at Miletus about 640 B. C. According to Herod- 
otus, he predicted the eclipse of the sun which occurred during a bat- 
tle between Cyaxares the Mede, and Alyattes, king of Lydia, about 609 
B. C. [is 16]. He considered water to be the origin or principle of all things, 
fixed the length of the year at 365 days, and attributed the attractive 
power of the magnet to a soul or life by which it is animated." 

6. Aristotle, boi-n at Stagira, in Thrace, B. ('. 8.S4, has had probably a 
wider and more lasting influence in the progress of human intelligence 
than any other man that ever lived. His father, Nicomachus, was a 
physician at the Macedonian court, and the author of some medical 
and scientific works. At the age of seventeen, Aristotle went to Athens, 
where he remained twenty years and became the most successful pupil 
in the school of Plato. As his own opinions became more clearly de- 
fined, he was unable to accept some of Plato's doctrines, but he never 
lost his affection and reverence for his teacher; perhaps thus originating 
the ancient proverb, "Plato is dear, but Truth is dearer.'' 

When Alexander came to the throne of Macedon, Aristotle removed 
to Athens and established a school, which was called the Lyceum, be- 
cause it was near the temple of Apollo Lycius. His active and restless 
temperament caused him to walk up and down while delivering his 
lectures; hence the name Peripatetic. After Alexander's death, the 
Athenians brought charges of impiety against Aristotle, who departed 
from their city without awaiting his trial, "that the Athenians might 
not incur the guilt of twice sinning against philosophy " (See g 134). He 
died at Chalcis, in Euboea, at the age of sixty-two. 

7. Phidias was a son of Charmides, an Athenian, and is supposed to 
have been born about the time of the battle of Marathon, though the 
date is uncertain. He was the founder of the Classical School of Greek 
Sculpture, which replaced the rudeness and stift'noss of the older statues 
with forms of ideal beauty and grandeur. The school of Praxiteles, 
which followed that of Phidias, had less of majesty, but even more of 
beauty and grace. 

Examples of the Early or Archaic School may be seen in the Ccsnola 
Collection of Cyprian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of New 
York; of the School of Phidias, in the Elgin Marbles of the British 
Museum, and the Venus of Meios, of which there are many copies in 
this country; of the later school, in the "Marble Faun" which Haw- 
thorne has described, the group of Niobe and her children, and per- 
haps the Venus de' Medici. 



PERIOD IV. — Ilclh'iik Kingdoms in Europe, Asia, and 

Africa. 



CH AFTER X. 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

LEXANDER III. of Macedon,' though 
only twenty years old when he became 
king, had already proved his extraor- 
dinary genius for war and government. 
A new congress at Corinth conferred 
ujion him the same command which his 
father had held (j^ 14°)' -'^nd in the 
spring of 334 B. C. he crossed the Hel- 
lespont with a (Jreek army of 35,000 
men. As before, the jjerfect training of 
the (Ireeks more than matched the im- 
mense numbers of the Persians (§§ 115, 
118). At the passage of the Granicus, 
Alexander defeated a superior force 
which opposed him; then, turning southward, he quickly 
made himself master of Asia Minor. Darius III, with half 
a million men, was defeated at Issus, and fled, leaving his 
mother, wife, and children in the hands of the conqueror. 

161. Alexander then i)ur])osely left him time to collect 

the whole force of his empire for a decisive combat, while 

he himself turned aside to receive the submission of 

Phoenicia. Palestine, and Egvpt, and thus prevent any 

(94) 




Demosthenes. 



BATTLE OF ARBELA. 95 



attack by sea upon Macedonia or Greece. Egypt and 
Palestine gladly threw off the Persian yoke; and — though 
Tyre withstood a long and obstinate siege — in less than 
two years, all the Mediterranean coast, as far as Libya, 
was added to the dominion of Alexander. Near the western 
mouth of the Nile he built a new city, called from his 
own name Alexandria,^ which has ever since been an im- 
portant mart of exchange between the East and the West. 

162. At length he marched eastward for the grand 
battle which was to decide the fate of western Asia. 
Darius had mustered and drilled more than a million of 
men, and had carefully chosen a field, near Arbela, which 
gave him all the advantage of this immense number. The 
ground was leveled and hardened, so that his 
scythe-armed chariots might operate with full ' "^ ' 
effect. He himself was present in the midst of his men, 
and his example increased their bravery. Nevertheless, 
Alexander and his Macedonian phalanx were again victo- 
rious, and Darius became a fugitive and a captive (§^ 60, 
61). The three Persian capitals, Susa, Persepolis, and 
Babylon, soon submitted to the conqueror. 

163. The young Greek general was now an Oriental 
monarch. His court, composed equally of /\siatics and 
Europeans, was as splendidly ceremonious as that of Xerxes 
himself. He put on all the haughty airs of a Persian 
king. His old comrades were required to prostrate them- 
selves on their faces in approaching his throne; and some 
of his best friends were put to death for daring to express 
their opinion of these new pretensions. But if his sudden 
successes were fatal to Alexander's good sense, they did not 
destroy his energy and talents. During the remainder of 
his short life, he reduced all the remaining provinces of 
the Persian empire to his sway. (See ^§48, 51.). 

164. He was no brutal conqueror, like those Asiatic 
chiefs (p. 12, note) whose tracks were marked by the ashes 



9^ THE A.VC/ENT WORLD. 

of burnt cities and by pyramids of human heads. Wher- 
ever his armies advanced, rivers were cleared for naviga- 
tion ; roads were made through tangled forests ; new cities 
sprang up ; trade revived, or was led into new channels ; 
and western thrift took the place of oriental indolence 
and stagnation. Learned men accompanied his fleets and 
armies; and their reports afford our first definite knowledge 
of India. 

165. But while Asia gained, Europe lost in almost equal 
measure. The Greeks, like the Persians before them 
(i5 63), lost their free spirit, and learned the slavish habits 
of courtiers. Art and literature declined as the spirit of 
the people became enslaved. 

The grand result of Alexander's short and brilliant career 
was to diffuse Greek civilization from the Adriatic to the 
borders of India, and from the Crimea to the cataracts of 
the Nile. By giving to all this region one common lan- 
guage for government and literature, Alexander's con- 
quests prepared the way for the more rapid progress of 
Christianity. 

166. Having extended his empire eastward beyond the 
Indus, Alexander was planning the conquest of Italy, 
Carthage, and all the western coasts of the Mediterranean. 
His schemes were, however, broken off by his sudden 
death from a fever, at Babylon. He was 32 years of age, 
and had reigned 12 years and 8 months. 

Trace, on Map i, Alexander's progress from the borders of the 
yEgean Sea to Arbela. Point out the countries and cities which he 
conquered. 

Read the story of Alexander in Felton's Smith's Greece, Ch. 
XLIV., and in Plutarch's Lives ; in Thirlwall's History of Greece, 
and in Williams's Life and Actions of Alexander the Great. 



MAP No. IV. 



IMPORTANT GREEK COLONIES. 



In Spain. 

Saguntum, and 5 other towns 

In France. 
Massilia (Marseilles) 

In Italy. 

Cumae 

Sybaris, and 25 subject cities 

Crotona 

Tarentum 

Locri Epizephyrii 

Rhegium 

Siris, or Heraclea 

Metapontum 

In Sicily. 

Naxos 

Syracuse 

Catana 

Leontini 

Gala 

Zancle, or Messene 

Himera 

Hybla 

Selinus 

Camarina 

Agrig-entum 



In Africa. 

Naucratis, in Egypt 

Cyrene 

Barca 

Hesperides 

On Ionian Islands and 
Coasts. 
Corcyra 
Ambracia 
Anactorium 
Leucas 
Apollonia 
Epidamnus 

In Thrace. 
Methone 
Potidasa 
Olynthus 
Amphipolis 
Sestus 
Byzantium 

On the Black Sea. 
Istria 
Apollonia 
Odessus 
Mesambria 
Tomi 
Cherson 



The Greek cities of Asia Minor were wealthiest and most im- 
portant of all ; but they are to be considered as independent 
states, rather than as colonies. 




S-K.Vail.dO. 



GREEK SAGES AND ARTISTS. 



Philosophers. 


Thales B. 


C. 639-546 


Anaximander 


610-547 


Pythagoras 


570-499. 


Auaximenes 


548-484. 


Xenophanes 


540-500. 


Parmenides 


520-460. 


Anaxagoras 


500-428. 


Zeno 


488-448. 


Socrates 


469-399. 


Plato 


430-347- 


Xenocrates 


396-314- 


Aristotle 


384-322. 


Poets. 


Homer 


85(^776. 


Hesiod 


790-640. 


Archilochus 


714-676. 


Terpander 


700-650. 


Alcman 


671-631. 


Tyrtaeus 


683-657. 


Alcaeus 


590. 


Stesichorus 


632-552. 


Anacreon 


563-478. 


Simonides 


556-467. 


yEschylus 


525-456. 


Pindar. 


522-442. 


Sophocles 


495-406. 



Euripides B. 


C. 480-406 


Aristophanes 


444-380 


Poetesses. 




Sappho 


611-573. 


Corinna 


500. 


Myrtis 


500. 


Sci(lpt07'S. 




Ageladas 


500-450. 


Phidias 


490-432. 


Polyclitus 


452-412. 


Myron 


480-431. 


Alcamenes 


444-400. 


Agoracritus 


440-425. 


Scopas 


395-350- 


Praxiteles 


364-350. 


Apollodorus 


320. 


Painters. 




Polygnotus 


463-426, 


Zeuxis 


424-400. 


Apollodorus 


408. 


Parrhasius 


400-344. 


Pamphilus 


390-350. 


Eupompus 


375- 


Apelles 


352-306. 


Protogenes 


332-300. 


Asclepiodorus 


330. 


Melanthius 


330- 



Note.—Single dates fall within the time of the greatest fame or power of the 
person named. Where two dates are given they usually include the period of 
greatest activity, in a few instances the whole life, of author or artist. The most 
ancient names, those of Homer and Hesiod, are involved in the greatest doubt; 
the opinions, even of ancient writers, differing by no less than 500 years as 10 
the time of their b'rth. The dates in the table are those of Smith's Dictionary 
of Biography. 



NOTES. 97 



NOTES. 

1. Of the four greatest military leaders that the world has known, 
Alexander of Macedon was earliest in time; and, if we compare the 
shortness of his career with the duration of its results, we can hardly 
refuse to call him the most extraordinary character in history. Through 
his mother, Olympias, he was descended from the kings of Epirns, who 
traced their origin to Achilles (§92). His ruling passion in childhood 
was a thirst for warlike achievements; he slept with his sword and a 
coyy of the Iliad under his pillow; and his waking hours were spent 
in manly exercises, in which he excelled all the youth of his time. A 
magnificent war-steed, named Bucephalus, was once brought to Philip, 
but proved so fierce and flery tliat neither grooms nor nobles could 
mount him. Alexander begged leave to try, and brought him under 
perfect control. The king wept for joy at this proof of his son's genius 
for command, and declared that Alexander must seek anotlier kingdom, 
for Macedonia was too small to give exercise to his powers. 

At the age of thirteen, Alexander became for three years the pupil 
of Aristotle, "the greatest intellect of that, or perhaps of any age" (see 
note 6, Cli. IX). Under his influence, " the boy awoke to the knowledge 
that a wonderful world lay before him, of which he had seen little, and 
threw himself, it is said, into the task of iiJithfring, at any cost, a col- 
lection for the study of natural history. While his mind was thus urged 
in one direction, he listened to stories which told liim of the great quar- 
rel still to be fought out between the East and the West, and learnt to 
look upon himself as the champion of Hellas against the barbarian 
despot of Susa." At sixteen, Alexander acted as regent of the kingdom 
during Ills fatlier's absence, and seized every opportunity to increase 
his knowledge by conversations with foreign embassadors. At eighteen, 
he contributed largely to Philip's victory at Clueronea (g 140). 

Several Greek states hailed his accession to the throne as a signal of 
their release from the Macedonian >(ike. But the young king soon 
showed them that in energy and ability he was at least not inferior to 
his fatlier. A second revolt in Thebes was avenged by the storm and 
capture of the city, and the destruction of all its houses, excepting that 
of Pindar, the poet (§ U7). All the Thebans were sold into slavery, save 
the descendants of Pindar and the oi)])(>nent8 of the revolt. This terri- 
ble act of severity deterred other states from fi)llowing the example; and 
Alexander took his place without opposition at the head of the Grecian 
forces. 

After the battle of Issus, the mother, the wife, and two daughters of 
the Persian king were left in the hands of the conqueror, but they were 
treated with the utmost generosity. Most of tlie maritime cities wel- 
comed Alexander as a deliverer from tlie hated rule of the Persians. 
Tyre and Gaza were the only exceptions, and tliey were punished for 
their resistance by frightful massacres. 

His unbroken series of successes began to have an evil efTect in the 
once manly and sincere character of Alexander, While in Egypt, he 
made a visit to the temple of Amun (§75), in the Libyan oasis, and 
caused himself to be recognized by the too-obedient priesthood as a son 
of the god. After his conquests in Asia, he ordered the death of Par- 
menion and his son Philotas, only because the latter had claimed too 
large a share of credit for his father and liimseU in the vielories of the 
Greeks. Enraged by the reproof of his faitliful friend Clitus for his 
drunken boasting, he murdered Clitus with his own hand; but we must 
add, to his credit, tliat, as soon as he was sober, he declared himself 
unfit to live, and would neither eat nor drink for tliree days. 

Having subdued the whole realm of Darius, Alexander advanced 
into India, a land of wonders, of wliich scarcely even the name had 
reached the (Jreeks. The naturalists who accompanied his expedition 
noted with curiosity the " wool-bearing trees " (cotton plants) and other 
strange productions of tlic country. The soldiers, however, refused to 
go farther than the Hyphasis (Sutlej), and, building a fleet on another 
branch of the Indus, he descended the great river to the sea. Leaving 
his admiral, Nearchus, to take the sliips through the Persian Gulf to 
the Tigris, he proceeded with his army across the Gedrosian desert to 
Susa. 

The hardships of the march were terrible, and great numbers per- 
Hist.-7. 



98 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



ished of hunger and thirst. Resting at Rusa, tlie conqueror Iiad time to 
mature liis plans for mailing one great empire of the lands he had sub- 
dued. He married a daugliter of liarius, and gave liberal gifts to nearly 
ten thousand of his veteran tri)(>|)crs, who had also taken Asiatic wives. 
He received into his army i!(i,(KKi J'lisian soldiers, whom he caused to be 
drilled in Macedonian tactics; and phiced over several provinces Persian 
olKcers wliom he could trust. Some of his veterans mutinied at this 
elevation of the conquered people to equal place witli themselves; but 
Alexander soothed their discontent with great skill, and then sent them 
home. 

He was planning to combiiie all the then-known countries into a 
great empii'e, extending from the Indus to the Straits of Gibraltar, with 
Babylon as its capital. The distribution of waters over the great Baby- 
lonian iilain enlisted his personal attention. He returned from a visit 
to the canals, to give a great banquet to Nearchus and the other officers 
of the tleet, who were about to sail for Arabia. In the midst of their 
preparations the king was attacked by a fever, which, in eleven days, 
ended his life. 

2. The quick eye of Alexander discerned the extraordinary advan- 
tages of tlie site between Lake Mareotis on the south, and the Mediter- 
ranean on the north. Summoning Dinocrates the architect — who had 
won great fanie by rebuilding the temple of Diana at Ephesus — he com- 
manded him to build here a city that should outrival Tyre. Within a 
few yeai's the densely peopled Alexandria was the greatest commercial 
city in the world. The island of Pharos, crowned by its light-house- 
tower, 400 feet in height, was connected with the mainland by a mole 
protected by forts. The island is now a jjeninsula, and the artificial 
causeway has grown, by accumulations of earth and sand, into a broad 
isthmus, on which a great portion of the modern city stands. 

The ancient city consisted of three parts: the Jewish quarter in the 
north-east; Rhacotis, the Kgyi)tian (juarter, in the west, and Brucheum, 
the royal or Greek quartcT, covering tlie remainder. 

The Greek quarter surpassed all the rest in magnificence, for it con- 
tained the palaces of the Ptolemies (1 172), the Mausoleum of Alexander, 
and many other splendid buildings. But the city's best title to fame 
consisted in the Museum, a sort of university which drew together the 
most brilliant company of learned and accomplished men that were 
ever assembled in one place. Demetrius Phalereus, " the last of Attic 
orators," is said to have inspired the flr.st of tlie Ptolemies with the 
idea of the great Alexandrian Ijibrary, the first institution of its kind 
in the world (^172). Part of this collection was kept in the temple of 
Serapis, on the inland rising ground of the Egj'ptian quarter; the rest 
was connected with the palace and museum. 

Among the great men of Alexandria were Euclid, the Geometer; 
Hipparchus, the "father of Astronomy; " Eratosthenes, the flr.st of Ge- 
ographers; Callimachus, the cliief Librarian, and the most celebrated 
grammarian, critic, and poet of iiis time; Apelles and Antiphilus, the 
painters. With all these and many more the king lived on terms of 
intimacy, delighting in their conversation and liberally forwarding their 
studies. At his request, Manethi), an Egyptian priest, wrote in Greek 
an account of the doctrines, wisdom, history, and chronology of his 
country, "based upon the ancient works of the Egyptians themselves, 
and more especially upon their sacred books." 

"Eratosthenes had heard that in Sycne, in LTpper Egypt, deep wells 
were enlightened to the bottom on the day of the summer solstice, and 
that vertical objects cast no shadows." He had already "calculated the 
obliquity of the ecliptic closely enough to serve for a thousand years 
after." He now perceived that Sycne niust be under the ecliptic, and, 
by comparing its latitude with that of Alexandria, 62.5 miles distant, 
was able to calculate the circumference of the earth. His result was 
too large — .31,500 miles — owing to an error in his first measuifinent ; init 
his method was right, and he had taken the first great step towards a 
knowledge of mathematical geograyhy. "The wise men of IMolemy's 
court well understood the spherical forih of the earth; their knowledge- 
being mainly theoretical— was lost during the ages of ignorance which 
followed; and it was left for Columbus and his successors to prove its 
correctness by actual experiment." 



CHAPTER XI. 



SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 




LEXANDER'S great empire fell 
to pieces shortly after his death, 
and his principal officers fought 
over the division of the spoils. 
After twenty-two years of fierce 
contention, a battle at Ipsus in 
Phrygia, B. C. 301, finally gave 
Syria and the East to Seleu'cus; 
Egypt to Ptol'emy ; Thrace, with 
part of Asia Minor, to Lysim'- 
achus ; Macedonia and Greece 
to Cassan'der. 

168. The Seleucidae.— The 

kingdom of Seleucus^ was by far 
the greatest and richest of these 
divisions, and under his energetic 
reign it rapidly became Hdlenized. His capital, Antioch^ 
on the Orontes, continued for a thousand years to be one 
of the most beautiful and flourishing cities in the world. 
The last survivors of those who had marched and fought 
under Alexander were Seleucus and Lysimachus; and these 
two made war in their old age against each other. Lysim- 
achus was slain, and his dominions in Asia Minor were 
added to the kingdom of Seleucus; but the latter was soon 
afterward murdered in Europe, where he was still pushing 
his conquests. 

169. The successors of Seleucus were inferior to him in 
character ; and two independent kingdoms, Parthia and 
Bactria, sprang up in the north-eastern part of their do- 

(99) 



A Greek Lady. 



lOO THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

minion. (See map i.) The Bactrians were of the Aryan 
race (§6), and their new kingdom was thoroughly Greek 
in spirit ; the Parthians, on the contrary, were nearly re- 
lated to the barbarous Scythians ; and their movement for 
independence was a revolt against Hellenic ideas. 

170. Anti'ochus III,^ the fifth of the Seleucidae, had 
many wars but few successes : nevertheless, his flatterers 
called him "the Great." His reign is marked by the 
fiirst serious collision of the Greek kingdoms with Rome. 
He suffered four signal defeats from the Romans, who took 
from him Asia Minor, except Cilicia, with all his ships and 
elephants, and an enormous treasure. His son, Antiochus 
Epiph'anes,^ had nearly conquered Egypt, when the Romans 
again interfered and made him resign all that he had taken. 
He obeyed, but revenged himself by plundering and des- 
ecrating the Temple at Jerusalem, B. C. 168. 

171. The Jews sprang to arms, inspired by their brave 
leader Ju'das Maccabae'us.^ Antiochus, who was now be- 
yond the Euphrates, set out in a great rage to punish 
their revolt ; but, in attempting to plunder another temple 
in Elymais, he was seized with a furious madness in which 
he died. Rome took the part of the "Maccabees," and 
Judtea became a separate kingdom. Between the Parthians 
on the east and the Romans on the west, the Seleucidae 
were engaged for a hundred years in constant wars, until, 
in 65, B. C, their whole dominion was absorbed into that 
of Rome. 

172. The Ptolemies. — B. C. 323-30. The Egyptian 
kingdom of Ptolemy^ was the most brilliant of all the 
Hellenic dominions. Under his thrifty management Egypt 
became a market for the whole world's wealth. Traders, 
scholars, and artists thronged in multitudes to Alexandria, 
which soon rivaled Athens in its beautiful buildings, while it 
surpassed the Attic city by its famous library — the greatest 
in the ancient world. To enrich this collection, Europe 



THE PTOLEMIES. loi 



and Asia were ransacked for literary works, and copies were 
obtained at any cost. A special embassy was sent to Jeru- 
salem to ask of the High Priest a copy of the Hebrew 
Scriptures and the services of a company of learned men 
who could translate them into Greek. These were royally 
received and entertained by Ptolemy, and the version which 
they produced became one of the chief treasures of the 
Alexandrian Library. It is called the Scptuagiiit, either be- 
cause the translators were seventy in number, or because it 
was sanctioned by the Sanhedrim, or Council of Seventy, at 
Alexandria. 

173. The first Ptolemy was perhaps the greatest and 
best man among Alexander's generals — distinguished in 
an age of fraud and violence for his truthfulness and self- 
control. None of his descendants equaled him in char- 
acter; but his son, Ptolemy Philadel'phus, continued the 
patronage of learned men with still greater liberality, while 
his wise commercial policy made Egypt the richest country 
in the world. 

174. Ptolemy HI., called Euer'getes, was a great con- 
queror, and extended his kingdom both westward and 
northward along the Mediterranean from Cyrene to the 
Hellespont. He even made conquests east of the Euphra- 
tes, and brought back some old Egyptian images which 
had been carried away by Sargon or Esarhaddon (§§ 13, 
14), but his eastern acquisitions were abandoned almost 
as soon as they were made. The rest of the twelve Ptol- 
emies had hardly any history worth recording. Egypt, 
like all the other Mediterranean countries, became subject 
at last to the Roman power. Cleopa'tra, a brilliant but 
unscrupulous princess, was the last of this royal line ; she 
tried to beguile the Roman generals by her arts, when she 
could not oppose them by arms ; and for some years she 
was successful. But at length An'tony, her lover, was de- 
feated in his contest with Octa'vian, and Cleopatra killed 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



herself to escape from adorning the triumphal procession 
of his conqueror. Egypt became a Roman province. 

175. The Egyptians, under the Ptolemies, kept their 
own language, religion, and customs, while, as in all the 
other Hellenic kingdoms, Greek was the language of the 
government. Royal and priestly decrees, intended to reach 
all the mixed population of the country, were written in 
three languages : the hieroglyphics, or sacred language of 
the priests, the demotic speech of the common people, and 
Greek. About eighty years ago, a stone, bearing one of 
these threefold inscriptions, was accidentally found by a 
French engineer near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. 
Learned men, with immense patience, compared the Greek 
sentences, which they could easily read, with the corre- 
sponding characters of the unknown tongues, and thus ob- 
tained a key to the long-sealed writings of the ancient 
Egyptians. The Rosetta Stone contained a decree of the 
priests, ordering divine honors to be paid to the fifth of 
the Ptolemies at his coronation. 

176. Greece, led by Athens, vainly attempted to make 
herself free from Macedon after the death of Alexander. 
The " Lamian War" ended in only confirming the Mace- 
donian supremacy, while Demosthenes (§ 140) and most of 
his party were condemned to exile or death. In this time 
of calamity, the Greeks learned too late the necessity of a 
closer union of the states. Several federations were formed, 
of which the most important were the Achoean League in 
southern, and the yEtolian in central Greece. But, unhap- 
pily, the several states were still divided by jealousies, 
which gave every advantage to their enemies. Rome and 
Macedon played off one League against the other almost 
at will; while the Romans were steadily advancing toward 
universal dominion. 

177. Philip V, the greatest of the later Macedonian kings, 
was at length so ruinously defeated by them at Cyn'oceph'- 



CONQUEST OF GREECE. 1 03 

alse, that he gave up all attempts to control the Greeks, 
having, indeed, more than enough to do in 
keeping a foothold in his own land. Philopce'- " ' '^^' 

men,''' the chief of the Achaean League, was the greatest 
man in Greece at this crisis. He infused his own brave 
and energetic spirit into the whole nation, and enabled it 
for a while to resist the encroachments of Rome. After 
his death, B. C. 183, the Roman power became irresistible. 
Per'seus, the last of the Macedonian kings, was defeated at 
Pydna, B. C. 168, and was afterward carried as a prisoner 
to Ltaly, where he died in a dungeon near Rome. 

178. A few years later, the remnant of the Achseans 
made a desperate effort to shake off the Roman yoke. 
One of their leaders was defeated and slain near Ther- 
mopylffi ; another made a final stand at Corinth, but he, 
too, was defeated and the city was taken, 
plundered, and destroyed. But captive Greece 
ruled her conquerors by her intellectual greatness. Roman 
nobles sought instruction at Athens; and Greek philosophy 
and poetry inspired all that was best in the literature of 
Rome. 

Point out on Maps i, 2, 3, and 4, Antioch, Alexandria, Actiiim, 
Cynocephalse, Pydna, Corinth, Athens, Thermopylae. 

The latest period in the History of Greece may be read in Grote, 
Chs. XCV, XCVI, and in Freeman's History of Federal Government, 
Vol. I. 

Some account of the Seleucidse will be found in Rawlinson's Sixth 
Monarchy. Their history and that of the Ptolemies may be found in 
Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography. Read also of 
Alexandria and its schools in Smith's Dictionary of Geography, in 
Charles Kingsley's four lectures on the subject, and in Draper's In- 
tellectual Development of Europe. The "Lives" of Aratus and 
Philopoemen are in Plutarch. 



104 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



NOTES. 

1. Seleucus, surnamed Nicator, or the Conqueror, rivaled the fame 
of Alexander as a founder of cities and patron of learning. In all the 
seventy-two provinces of his kingtloni, Greek towns became centers of 
Greek intelligence and enterprise in the midst of Asiatic indolence. 
Seleucia, on the Tigris, was intended as a rival to Babylon; but subse- 
quently wishing to keep watch of his rivals, Ptolemy and Lysimachus, 
he removed his capital from that eastern valley to the Mediterranean, 
and built Antioch, which long ranked as the third city in the worhl, 
Rome and Alexandria being its only superiors. Dying in B. C. 280, Se- 
leucus was succeeded by his son Antiochus I., wlio won the name of 
Hiitiji- (savior) by a victory over the Gauls, but was afterward killed in 
battle with those barbarians, B. C. 261. 

2. This Antioch was one of sixteen new cities of the same name, 
given to them by Seleucus in honor of his father Antiochus. The Syr- 
ian Antioch, however, surpassed all the rest in wealth, beauty, and re- 
sources for enjoyment. Within a few miles was the celebrated cypress 
grove of Daphne, which, for the beauty of its winding walks and nu- 
merous rivulets and fountains, was compared to the Vale of Tempe. 
The road thither lay along the river and through the pleasure-grounds 
attached to private villas, whose well-watered lawns, gardens, and 
shrubberies contributed to the delight of every sense; and, in the month 
of August, the annual festival of Apollo and Artemis drew great crowds 
from all the region to the temple of those divinities which Seleucus had 
erected in the midst of the grove. 

The city itself was noted for the magnificence of its colonnaded 
streets, and the gayety of its inhabitants. It was visited, however, by 
frequent and terrible earthquakes. One of the most severe occurred in the 
time of Trajan, A. D. 115; another, in that of Justin, A. D. 520, when the 
city was entirely destroyed, and a quarter of a million of lives were 
lost. Twelve years later it was sacked and burnt by the Persians; and, 
though partly rebuilt by Justinian (gg292, 293), never regained its high 
rank as Queen of the East. 

3. Antiochus III. was only fifteen years of age when he succeeded 
his brother Seleucus III. in 223 B. C. He gained sonie advantages over 
Ptolemy IV., but was afterwards defeated by him in a great battle at 
Raphia, near Gaza, B. C. 217. In one campaign he recovered Media from 
the Parthian king who had overrun it. Extending his march to India, 
he made friendly alliances with several Hindoo princes. In 195 B. C. 
he received at his court the great but unfortunate Hannil)al (i;!; 210-214), 
who gladly led the Syrian armies against his ancient enemies, tlie Ro- 
mans. But Hannibal's advice was not followed, -and Antiochus, having 
invaded Greece in 191 B. C, was defeated by the Romans at ThermopyUe. 
The next year he suffered a still more signal overthrow near Magnesia, 
in Lydia, leaving more than half his army dead upon the field. In the 
peace which followed, he surrendered all his ships and elei>hants, and 
all Asia Minor except Cilicia, wliile he engaged to pay nearly S2I).(iiki,()00 
for the expenses of the war. In attempting to take part of this amount 
from the treasures of the temple of Belus, he provoked a riot iu which 
he was killed, 187 B. C. 

4. Antiochus IV. was undeservedly styled Epiphanes (the Illustrious), 
for his reigu brought little honor to himself or his kingdom. He had 
been one of twenty hostages, given by his fatlier to the Romans as se- 
curities for the payment ot his enormous war indemnity (see note 3); and, 
in his twelve years' residence at Kdine, lie adopted notions and habits 
which proved displeasing to his people, when, in 175 B. C, he returned 
to be their king. Both Jews and Greeks believed that the wild insanity 
which ended his life was a judgment of Heaven for his impious dese- 
cration of their temples. 

5. As a pai't of the studious insults heaped by Antiochus Epiphanes 
upon the religious observances of the Jews, they were required to offer 
swine's flesh upon their most holy altar at .lerusalem. Mattathias, 
the ofHciating priest, was a brave old man, and, instead of complying 
with the royal mandate, struck down with his axe the Syrian officer 



NOTES. 105 

who brought it; then, with his four sons and other loyal followers, he 
marched against the Syrians and overthrew the altars wliiih they had 
set up. The surname JShucabaus from the Hebrew word Makkah, a 
hammer, was given to Judas, tlie most famous of the sons of Maliatlilas, 
in consequence of his victories over Antiochus about 165 B.C., but his 
descendants were called Maccabees, as well as Asmona^ans (from tlieir 
ancestor, Asmonseus). They ruled Judaea until B. C. 37. Judas fell in bat- 
tle with tlie Syrians, B. C. ItiO, and was succeeded by his brother Jona- 
than, as ruler and high priest. He was followed by a younger brother, 
Simon, under whose leadership the independence of the Jews was rec- 
ognized, even by the king of Syria. 

6. Alexander was not destined to carry out his own magnilicent 
project [in the development of Egypt]. That was left to the general 
whom he most esteemed, and to whose personal prowess he had once 
owed his life; a man than whom history knows few greater, Ptolemy, 
the son of Lagus. 

It was his wisdoin which perceived that the huge empire of Alexander 
could not be kept together, and advised its partition among the gener- 
als, taking care himself to obtain the lion's share, not in size, indeed, 
but in capability. He saw, too, that the only way to keep what he had 
got was to make it better and not worse than he found it. It had not 
escaped that man what was the secret of Greek supremacy. How had 
he come there? How had his great master conquered half the world? 
How had the little semi-barbarous mountain-tribe up there in Pella 
risen under Philip to be the master-race of the globe? How, indeed, had 
Xenoplion and his Ten Thousand [;; .>Sj, how had the handfuls of Salamis 
and Marathon, held out triumphantly, century after century, against 
the vast weight of the barbarian? The simple answer was, Because the 
Greek has mind; the barbarian, mere brute-force. Because mind is the 
lord of matter; because the Gi'eek, being the cultivated man, is the only 
true man; the rest are mere things — clods, tools tbr the wise (ireek's 
use, in spite of all their material phantom strcntith of elephants and 
treasures, and tributaries by the million. Mind was the secret of Greek 
power; and for that Ptolemy would work. He would have an aristoc- 
racy of intellect; he would gather around him the wise men of the 
world, and he would develop to its highest the conception of Philip 
when he made Aristotle the tutor of his son A\e-KStxi6.QX.— Abridged from 
Alexandria and her S^iools. By Charles Kingsley. 

7. Philopcemen, "the last of the Greeks," was a native of Megalop- 
olis, in Arcadia. In his youth he was tired with zeal by the genius and 
virtues of Epaminondas (g 136), and devoted himself to the study of the 
art of war. In B. C. 208, he was appointed general-in-chief of the Ach£e- 
an League, one of the too-late etTorts of the Greeks to find strength in 
federal union. If they had learned the secret earlier, the history of 
Greece might have been longer and more prosperous. Originally, the 
League was only a union of twelve small towns in the north of the 
Peloponnesus, for purposes of common worship; but the people who 
formed it were so respected for their virtues, that powerful states some- 
times submitted disputes to their decision. In the year 280 B. C, the 
League, long discontinued, was revived, not now chiefly for religious 
puri^oses, but for a substantial political union. Aratus, df Sicyon, was 
its most famous leader before Philopcemen. The Encyclniiailia Britan- 
nica says: "Thus did this people, so celebrated in the heroic age, once 
more emerge from coinparative obscurity, and become the greatest 
among the states of Greece in the last days of its national independence. 
The inhabitants of Patrte and of Dyme were the first assertors of ancient 
liberty. The tyrants were banished, and tlie towns again made one 
commonwealth. Many neighboring towns, which admired the constitu- 
tion of this republic, founded on equality, liberty, the love of justice, 
and of the public good, were incorporated with the Achseans and admitted 
to the full enjoyment of their laws and privileges. The Achaean League 
aflFords the most perfect example in antiquity of the federal form of 
government, and, allowing for difference of time and place, its resem- 
blance to that of the United States is very remarkable."— I, 94. 

The resemblance may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that the 
founders of our great Republic were acquainted with Greek history. 



PART III. — Rome. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE ROMAN KINGDOM — ITS RELIGION. 



HE Italian peninsula had now become 

the seat of the most powerful and 

long-enduring government that the 

world has ever known. But, if we 

would trace the stream of conquest to 

its source, we must go back to a little 

village on the Tiber, founded in the 

eighth century before Christ, if common 

report* be true, by a "band of shepherds 

and robbers. Southern Italy and Sicily 

were already occupied by many Greek 

cities; while north of the Tiber were 

the Etruscans,^ a civilized and powerful 

people, whose singular religious customs 

largely affected those of the Romans. 

1 80. The latter belonged to the Latin 
branch of the Italian race, and soon 
allied themselves with the League of thirty Latin cities, 
between the Liris and the Tiber. They resembled the 
Spartans in their stern and haughty character; and the 
influence of Rome in Latium, as of Sparta in Greece, was 




Standard-Bearer. 



■•■■For the legendary account of the founding of Rome, see Ancient 
History, pp. 249, 250. 

(io6j) 



KINGS OF ROME. 107 



always in favor of government by the nobles, against any 
assumption of power by the common people. 

181. Rome was governed by kings for more than two 
centuries after its foundation (B. C. 753-510). Tradition 
names seven monarchs : Rotrhilus, the mythical founder of 
the state, and Nu'ma, of the religion of Rome; Tiil'lns 
Hostil'ius and An'ciis Mar'tius, who extended its dominion 
by conquests; the first Tar'quin, who enriched the city by 
many grand and useful works; Ser'viits Tiil'lius^ who gave 
to every free Roman the right of voting, divided public 
lands among the people, and organized the whole state 
into a military system; and Tarquin the Proud, who, trying 
to rob the people of their newly found rights, was expelled 
with all his family. 

182. A republic was then established under the "good 
laws" of Ser'vius. Two chief magistrates, afterwards called 
consuls, were elected every year, with full kingly powers. 
They were attended by a guard of twelve lictors, bearing 
fasces, or bundles of rods, as symbols of authority. At the 
end of their year of office, the consuls could be tried and 
punished for any abuse of their power. 

183. In the earliest times, Rome contained only the 
patricians — consisting of 300 families — with their clients 
and slaves. The clients," though free, had no civil rights ; 
they were represented in courts of law by the patrician 
whom they chose as their patron — whose lands they culti- 
vated, or whose influence protected their trade. Each 
patrician was proud of the number of clients who assumed 
his family name. The heads of the 300 noble houses 
constituted the Senate, an august assemblage, mostly of 
old men, distinguished by the broad, purple stripe upon 
their mantles, and by their thrones and scepters of ivory. 
The whole body of patricians constituted the Coniitia 
Curiata, which confirmed or annulled all laws proposed 
by the magistrates. 



Io8 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

184. Later, there arose at Rome a new class, called 
plebeians, who were either foreign settlers, or children of 
mixed marriages, or clients whose protecting families had 
become extinct. The patricians were very angry when the 
new Assembly of the Hundreds, formed by the good king, 
Servius Tullius (§181), included even plebeians in the right 
to vote. They believed that patricians alone could ap- 
proach the gods with prayers and sacrifices, and that, 
therefore, it would be an insult to Heaven if a plebeian 
were admitted to any office which must be entered with 
religious rites. Another point of jealousy was found in 
the division of lands conquered in war. The patricians 
wanted these for the pasturage of their enormous flocks; 
but Servius thought it right to give the plebeians also a 
share. 

185. Every free Roman was a soldier, and was enrolled, 
according to his wealth, in one of five ranks. The richest, 
being able to equip themselves in complete brazen armor, 
fought in front of the army; the rest, according to their 
means and equipment, were placed in successive ranks 
toward the rear. 

186. The Religion of the Romans was less poetical 
than that of the Greeks; but it was bound up with their 
love of home and country, and strongly affected their daily 
life. As Greek monarchs were supposed to be descendants 
of Zeus, so the first Roman king was fabled to be a grand- 
son of Mars, the war-god; and the whole history of this 
martial people justifies the legend. The two chief divinities 
of the Romans were Ju'pitcr and Mars; and almost all 
their yearly religious festivals were connected either with 
war or tillage. The worship of some of the other divinities 
was borrowed from abroad; e. g. that of Apollo from the 
Greeks, and that of Miner'va from the Etruscans. 

187. But the "household gods" were nearest and dearest 
to every Roman heart. Every house was a temple, and 



RELIGION OF THE ROMANS. lOp 

every meal a sacrifice to Ves'ta, the home-goddess. Her 
temple was the hearthstone of the city, where six noble 
maidens guarded the sacred fire by night and day. Over 
the door of every house was a little chapel of the Lares, 
or ancestors of the family, to whom the father jmid his 
devotions whenever he entered.^ 

i88. The Romans, like the Greeks, believed in oracles 
(§99), while from the Etruscans they borrowed rules for the 
interpretation of signs in the heavens, of the appearance 
of sacrifices, and of dreams. The Four Sacred Colleges 
were those of the Pontiffs, the Augurs, the Heralds, and 
the Keepers of the Sibylline Books} The first regulated 
public worship and kept the calendar; the second con- 
sulted the gods with reference to all public affairs; the 
third guarded the honor of the nation in its deaHngs 
with foreign powers; the fourth, in times of great public 
calamity, looked into the Sibylline Books, which were 
supposed to prophesy the fate of Rome. 

189. Once in five years, after the taking of the census, 
there was a solemn purification of the city and all the 
people, by means of prayers and sacrifices, to avert the 
anger of the gods. In like manner farmers were supposed 
to purify their fields, and shepherds their flocks; generals 
their armies, and admirals their fleets, to guard against 
disasters which might be visited upon some secret or 
open impiety.'^ 

Name the boundaries of Italy. The tribes who occupied it in the 
early days of Rome. What islands near Italy? 

Read the early history of Rome in Arnold, Niebuhr, and Mommsen. 

NOTES. 

1. The Etruscans, or Tuscans, differed much from the other nations 
of Italy in language, appearance, and character. Probably they were two 
races combined,— the mass being Pelasgi (^86), who were conquered and 
absorbed, perhaps even before they entered Italy, by a more powerful 
people from the North, called by themselves Ra.s'ena. History tirst finds 
this conquering people in Rhcetia, the country about the head-waters 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



of the Adige, the Danube, and the Rhine, where, until lately, their 
language was still spoken, and works of art like theirs were found. 
Entering Italy, they formed, in time, three distinct confederations, of 
twelve cities each. The first was in the plain of the Po; the second, in 
Tuscany, which still bears their name; the third, in Campania; but the 
last was lost in wars witli the Samnites. 

At a very early period, the Etruscans were a luxurious and wealthy 
people. They had treaties with the (Jarthagin urns; they sent three ships 
to aid the Athenians in their war in Sicily (^ 130). Their architecture, as 
still existing in city walls and amphitheaters, is of the most massive 
character, and their tombs contain untold wealth of bronzes and jew- 
elry. 

Their religion was gloomy and superstitious, consisting mainly of 
contrivances for averting calamities and predicting future events. Their 
elaborate books of divination were said to be made up of the sayings 
of a miraculous dwarf named Tages, whom a plowman found one day 
in his furrow, and who, though only a boy, had gray hair, and was 
wiser than any ancient sage. His sentences were delivered in verse, like 
oracles (^ 99), and were carefully written down. They taught how to 
avert the wrath of the gods by sacrifices, and to learn their will by 
auguries drawn from the flight of birds, from thunder and lightning, 
and from the entrails of slain beasts. The fifth and seventh kings 
of Rome (PSl) were Etruscans from Tarquinii. The first Tarquin 
adorned his capital with magnificent buildings, and drained it by an 
extensive system of sewers. A characteristic specimen of Etruscan ar- 
chitecture is seen in the still perfect round arch of the Cloaca Maxima. 

2. After the plebeians had obtained equal civil rights witli the patri- 
cians, the character of clientage changed" but great men still prided 
themselves upon having a crowd of dependents waiting in their recep- 
tion-halls, or following them tlirough the streets. One chief duty of 
the client was the morning salutation. The Romans were early ri.sers, 
and the vestibulesof greathouses were thronged before sunrise with those 
who came to pay their re.spects to the proprietor. About sunrise the 
hall doors were thrown open, and the patron made his appearance, 
spoke with each of his callers, invited some to dinner, and heard the 
requests of any who needed advice or aid. Originally food was either 
served to the guests or given out in baskets: as this became inconven- 
ient, a fixed salary was assigned to each client, which was often his 
only means of support. Special distributions were made on occasions 
of domestic festivity ; when there was a wedding in the patron's family, 
a piece of gold was given to each client. 

3. Here is a picture of the life of a well-born Roman, from "The An- 
cient City," by M. Fustel de Coulanges: "Each one of his daily actions 
is a rite; his whole day belongs to his religion. Morning .and evening 
he invokes his fire [note \. p. 62], his penates, and his ancestors; in 
leaving and entering his house he addresses a prayer to them. Every 
meal is a religious act, which lie shares with his domestic divinities. 

"He leaves his house, and can hardly take a sti'i) without meeting 
some sacred object— either a chapel, or a place formerly struck by light- 
ning, or a tomb; sometimes he must step back and prVmounce a prayer; 
sometimes he must turn his eyes and cover his face, to avoid the sight 
of some ill-boding object. 

" Every day he sacrifices in his house, every month in his curia, sev- 
eral months a year, with his gens or his tribe. Above all these gods, 
he must offer worship to those of the city. There are in Rome more 
gods than citizens. 

" He offers sacrifices to thank the gods; he offers them, and by far the 
greater number, to appease their wrath. . . . There is a festival for 
seed-time, one for harvest, and one for the pruning of the vines. Before 
corn has reached the ear, the Roman has offered more than ten sacrifices, 
and invoketl some ten divinities, for the success of his harvest. He has, 
above all, a number of fe.'^tivals for the dead, because he is afraid of 
them. He never leaves his own house without looking to see if any 
bird of bad augury appears. There are words which he dares not pro- 
nounce for his life. If he experiences some desire, he inscribes his wish 
upon a tablet, which he places at the feet of the statue of a divinity. 

" He steps out of his house always with his right foot first. He has 



NOTES. 



his hair cut only during the full moon. He carries amulets upon his 
person. He covers the walls of his house with magic inscriptions against 
lire. He knows of formulas for avoiding sickness, and of others for 
curing it, but he must repeat them twenty-seven times, and spit in a 
certain fashion at eudi repetition. 

"He does not deliberate in the senate if the victims have not given 
favorable signs. He leaves the assembly of the people if he hears the 
cry of a mouse. He renounces the best-laid plans if he perceives a bad 
presage, or if an ill-omened word has struck his ear; he is brave in bat- 
tle, but on condition that the auspices assure him the victory. 

"This Roman, whom we present here, is not the man of the people, 
the feeble-minded man whom misery and ignorance have made super- 
stitious. We are speaking of the patrician, the noble, powerful, and 
rich man. This patrician is, by turns, warrior, magistrate, consul, 
farmer, merchant; but every-where and always he is a priest, and his 
thoughts are fixed upon the gods." 

4. These books were kept with the greatest care in a stone chest 
under the temple of Jupiter C'apitolinus. A curious story was told of 
their origin. A strange woman came one day to King Taninin— whether 
the First or the Second the legends did not agree— and ollered him, for 
a certain price, nine books of propliecies. The king refusing to purchase, 
she went away and burned three volumes, then, returning, asked the 
same price for the remaining six. The king again refused, and the 
Sibyl again disappeared, but came bacli, demanding the same price for 
the books that were left. This time the king bought the mysterious 
volumes, and the woman was never seen again. 

At first, two keepers of the books were appointed, subsequently there 
were ten, and at last fifteen. The prophecies were written on palm 
leaves, and probably in Greek. It is not known whether they foretold 
future events or merely dictated the forms of worship by which the 
supposed wrath of the gods could be appeased in times of pestilence or 
other calamity. The Sibyls, if indeed they had any real existence, seem 
to have been Asiatic prophetesses, who wandered from ijlace to place 
with their sacred honks. Six of these weird women are mentioned by 
ancient writers: the Erytlirtean (to whom the Roman volumes above- 
m^entioned were ascribed), the Samian, the Egyptian, the Sardinian, the 
Cumsean, and the Hebrew. There are. said to have been four more, 
whose names and origin can not be discovered. 

5. One feature of Roman religion has neitlier been borrowed nor imi- 
tated. "They built temples and ofTered sacrifices to the highest human 
excellencies— to Valor, to Truth, to Good Faith, to Modesty, to Charity, 
to Concord. The Virtues were elevated into beings, to whom disobedi- 
ence could be punished as a crime; and the superstitious fears which 
run so often into mischievous idolatries, were enlisted with conscience 
in the direct service of right action. On the same principle the Roiuans 
chose the heroes and heroines of their national history. . . . On the 
same principle, too, they had a public officer, a Censor Morum, who 
might examine into the habits of private families, rebuke extravagance, 
check luxury, punish vice and self-indulgence, nay, who could remove 
from the senate, the great council of elders, persons whose moral con- 
duct was a reproach to a body on whose reputation no shadow could 
be allowed to rest. 

"Such t)ie Romans were in the day when their dominion had not 
extended beyond the limits of Italy; and, because they were such, they 
were able to prosper under a constitution which, to modern experience, 
would promise only the most hopeless confusion. . . . 

"The sense of duty is present in each detail of life; the obligatory 
must, which binds the will to tlie course which right principle has 
marked out for it, produces a fiber like the fiber of the oak. The edu- 
cated Greeks knew little of it. They had courage and genius and en- 
thusiasm, but they had no horror of immorality as such. The Stoics 
saw what was wanting, and tried to supply it; but, though they could 
provide a theory of action, they could not make the theory a reality: 
and it is noticeable that Stoicism, as a rule of life, became important 
only when adopted by Romans." — Froude's ^'Ccesar." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE ROMAN REPUBLIC — SAMNITE WARS. 




Tribune and Lictor.^ 



HE 480 years' history 
of the Roman Re- 
public is a record of 
ahnost continual wars; 
but there were four dis- 
tinctly marked periods, 
which will help us to un- 
derstand the development 
of this remarkable nation. 

I. Wars for existence, 
and growth of the Re- 
publican Constitution, B. 

^- 510-343- 

II. Wars for possession 
of Italy, B. C. 343-264. 

III. W^ars for Foreign Dominion, B. C. 264-133. 

IV. Civil Wars, B. C. 133-30. 

igi. Patricians and Plebeians. — ^In the contests 
with the Latins and Etruscans, whicli followed the expul- 
sion of the kings (§ 181), a great part of the Roman ter- 
ritory was lost, and the rest was laid waste. The poor 
people, who derived their living from the soil, were in 
great distress, and had to l)orrow money from the patricians 
at ruinous interest in order to go on with their farming. 
Some even sold themselves as slaves, and others were 
thrown into the dungeons of their creditors. At length, 
tired of a government which cared only for the rich, and 
had neither justice nor j)ity for the poor, the plebeians 
seceded to the Sacred Mount, and resolved to form a new 

city. 

(112) 



AGRARIAN LAWS. II3 

192. The patricians now consented to cancel the debts 
of all who were unable to pay, and agreed to the yearly 
election of two tribunes, whose duty it should be to de- 
fend the interests of the plebeians. The next year an 
"Agrarian Law" provided for the distribution of a certain 
part of the public lands among the plebeians, while the 
rents of those leased to patricians were applied to the pay- 
ment of soldiers who had hitherto been compelled to give 
their services to the state. The consul who proposed this 
law was condemned and beheaded at the expiration of his 
term ; and the first tribune who attempted to enforce it 
was murdered. But its enemies only defeated themselves, 
for so violent was the popular rage that the next tribune, 
Publil'ius, was able to obtain a still greater security for the 
rights of the plebeians. This was, the power to elect their 
own officers* in their own Meeting of the Tribes; and 
there, too,, to discuss all questions affecting the whole na- 
tion, before they were presented to the Assembly of the 
Hundreds. This prevented the plebeians being outvoted 
by the clients of the noble houses, who of course were 
controlled by their masters. 

193. Some proud patricians, rather than share their 
power with inferiors, went over to the enemies of Rome. 
Among these was Ca'ius Mar'cius — called Co'riola'nus, be- 
cause he had taken the town of Corioli from the Volscians; 
but it was with these same Volscians that he now took 
refuge, and even led their armies against his native city. 
A sacred embassy of priests and augurs went out to meet 
him, but he refused all terms of peace. At last, his 
mother, his wife, and his little children appeared, followed 
by a procession of noble ladies, entreating him to spare 



■■"From that time," says a Roman historian, "the election of 
tribunes and iiediles was made ^oithoul bh-ds," alluding to the cere- 
mony of "taking the auguries," which must precede every election 
in which patricians had part. See § 184. 

Hist.— 8. 



114 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

their altars and their homes. Coriolanus yielded, but with 
the despairing cry: "Mother, thou hast saved Rome, but 
thou hast lost thy son ! " He led away his army. Some 
say the Volscians killed him in their revenge, but others, 
that he lived to great age, lamenting, in the loneliness of 
exile and infirmity, the foolish pride that had robbed him 
of home and honor. 

194. x\fter many years of contention, all classes agreed 
to appoint ten men {Decci/iviri), who should consider and 
adjust all conflicting claims and make a new constitution 

for Rome. The results of their labor were 
the Laws of the Twelve Tables,* which be- 
came the "source of all public and private right'' in Rome 
for a thousand years. They were approved by the Senate, 
and ratified by the Assembly of the Hundreds. But, 
though formally accepted, the laws were not enforced until 
two secessions and many violent tumults, caused by patri- 
cian outrages, had proved the powder of the plebeians. 

195. Rome was soon afterward visited by a terrible 
calamity. The Gauls,'^ who had conquered northern Italy, 
came pouring through the defiles of the Apennines, and 
defeated the whole Roman army with great slaughter in 

the battle of the Allia ; then, pushing on with 
irresistible fury, captured and burned the city. 
The rocky height of the Capitol was bravely defended for 
several months, and then ransomed for 1000 pounds of 
gold. The Gauls continued for many years to ravage 
Italy, and twice encamped within a few miles of Rome, 
but at last they withdrew to the fertile plain between the 
Alps and the northern Apennines, which was thenceforth 
named from them Cisalpine Ciaul. They learned letters 
and civilized habits from the Etruscans, and taught them 
in some degree to their wild kindred among the Alps. 



*-'So called because they were inscribed on bronze tablets. 



THE SAMNITES. 115 



196. The poverty and distress of the plebeians, resulting 
from the ravages of the Gauls, made the patricians only 
more haughty and overbearing. Rome was a shapeless 
heap of rubbish, through which even the direction of 
former streets could not be traced; while orchards and 
farm-buildings outside the walls had all been burnt. Again 
the dungeons beneath the patrician houses on the hills 
were crowded with insolvent debtors, who cried out against 
the cruelty of their tormentors. 

197. The tribune Licin'ius Sto'lo, and his colleague L. 
Sex'tius, then brought forward a series of laws, which were 
designed to raise the plebeians to absolute equality with the 
patricians in civil rights and the use of the public lands. 
Of course the latter violently opposed the meas- 
ures ; but, after some years, the ' ' Licinian 

Laws "'^ were passed, and Rome had for the first time a 
really popular government. Of the two consuls chosen 
every year, one was henceforth a plebeian. The consuls 
still had unlimited military power; but most of their judicial 
duties were now committed to a p/'cstor, who for a time 
was chosen only from the patricians. 

198. Wars in Italy. — At peace with herself, Rome 
now looked out upon the broader field where she was to 
become mistress of the world. The Samnites to the south- 
ward were more civilized and powerful than the Latins. 
They had conquered most of the Greek settlements (§88) 
in southern Italy, and had adopted Greek ways of living 
and thinking, so that they were superior in intellectual 
culture to their neighbors, with whom they were now 
to contest the rule of the peninsula. But the Romans 
had already proved that wonderful genius for government 
which afterward enabled them to bind together all their 
conquests into one great empire ; while the Samnites had 
only a loose confederation of cities without any recognized 
leader. 



Il6 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

199. All Italy was engaged on one side or the other; 
and the three Samnite Wars lasted, with brief intervals, 
more than half a century (B. C. 343-290). The Latin 
allies, becoming unruly, were reduced to obedience by a 
war, which broke up the League (§ 180) and subjected all 

Latium to Roman law. Two incidents of the 
Latin war illustrate the Spartan-like sternness 
of the Romans. All soldiers were forbidden to leave the 
camj) on pain of death; but Ti'tus Man'lius, the consul's 
son, vexed by the challenge of a Latin warrior, went out 
and killed him, and, returning in triumph, laid the spoils 
at his father's feet. The consul ordered his guards to 
behead the young man before his tent in the presence of 
all the army. 

200. The battle which decided the fate of Latium, took 
place at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius, 339 B. C. The augurs 
had declared (§ 188) that Fate demanded the destruction 
of an army on one side and a general on the other. It 
was therefore agreed by the Roman commanders that, if 
any portion of their army should begin to give way, the 
consul commanding in that quarter would devote himself 
to death for the deliverance of the state. Manlius led 
the Roman right; De'cius, the plebeian consul, the left, j 
All fought bravely, but at length the Roman left wavered. 
Decius called the pontiff, and with his aid repeated the 
solemn words in which he devoted himself and the Latin 
army to the gods of death and the grave ; then, mounting 
his horse, plunged into the thickest of the fight and was 
almost immediately killed. 

201. B. C. 326-304. The Second Samnite War lasted 
22 years. The Romans suffered a disgraceful defeat at the 
Caudine Forks, where the remnant of their army which 
survived had to "pass under the yoke," in token of 
submission. A treaty of peace was then made ; but the 
Roman Senate refused to be bound by it, and sent the 



THE THIRD SAMNITE WAR. 117 

:\vo consuls and two tribunes who had signed it, bound in 
:hains, to suffer the vengeance of the Samnites. Pon'tius, 
;he Samnite general, generously released them. After 
nany reverses and a few great victories, the Romans 
vere at length acknowledged as masters of Italy. 

202. The Samnites, however, made use of the six years' 
nterval of peace to enlist all the Italian nations in a new 
eague against Rome, and, in 298 B. C. , the Third Samnite 
kVar broke out. Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls, on the 
lorth, were allied with Lucanians, Apulians, Greeks, and 
samnites on the south. In a great battle 

It Sentinum, the Gauls and Samnites were ' ' ^'^ ' 

iefeated, and 25,000 men were slain. Pontius, the Sam- 
lite general, still defended his country by his brilliant 
genius; but at length the Romans gained a victory, in 
vhich he was made a prisoner and compelled to walk 
:he streets of Rome loaded with chains to adorn the 
xiumph'* of the consul. When the procession reached the 
bot of the Capitoline Hill, he was led aside and be- 
leaded in the Mamertine Prison. Samnium w^as com- 
pletely subjected, and a Roman colony of 20,000 people 
guarded its territory. 

203. Two short wars added to the Roman possessions 
he lands of the yEqui and Sabines, rich in oil, wine, and 
brests of oak. These were divided among the people, 
nany of whom had been made poor by the long wars ; 
md, by the wise laws of Hortensius, Rome was saved 
rom civil strife for 150 years. 

204. The next important contest was with Pyr'rhus,^king 
)f Epirus, an ambitious and able prince who 

, . -r 1 1 1 r B. C. 281-278. 

vas mvited nito Italy by a league of many 
lations, with the Greek city of Tarentum at their head. 
\t Heracle'a, his elephants put the Roman horse to flight; 
md his military genius was proved by many other vic- 
:ories. But while Pyrrhus was fighting for glory, Rome 



Il8 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

was fighting for existence. As often as one army was 

destroyed, another was ready to oppose him; and at 

length he withdrew into Sicily, hoping to recruit his forces 

for a fresh attempt. He was defeated two 

B C 275 

years later at Beneventum, and left Italy never 
to return. His allies submitted, and the whole Italian 
peninsula, properly so called, was now subject to Rome. 

205. Her power was secured by many new colonies and 
by military roads, the remains of which may yet be seen. 
The maritime colonies possessed the full "Roman right;" 
/. e., the colonists retained all the powers and privileges 
of Roman citizens. They could go to Rome and vote in 
the assemblies; and they could be elected to any office 
which would have been open to them w^hen living in the 
mother city. The "Latin right" was that which had been 
given to the cities of Latium when they were first made 
subject to Rome. It was bestowed on the less favored 
colonies; but it included commercial and other privileges, 
which bound them to Rome by ties of interest. 

Point out, on Map 5, the nations engaged in the Third Samnite 
War: see §202. Point out Sentinum. Tarentum. Beneventum. 
Heraclea. 

Read the story of this period, more fully told, in Arnold's History 
of Rome. 

NOTES. 

1. Lictors were public officers who attended every great magistrate 
of Rome, in greater or less number, according to his raalc. They carried 
fasces, which were bundles of birch or elm rods, bound together, and 
usually having an axe in the middle. Each king had been preceded 
by twelve lictors; after the republic was established, one of the consuls 
was attended by twelve, bearing the fasces and axe; the other consul 
had twelve lictors, but their fasces consisted of rods only. There is a 
curious story told by Livy, which shows how much importance was 
attached to the pomp and dignity supposed to be derived from these 
attendants : 

" Fabius Ambustus, one of the most illustrious patricians, had two 
daughters whom he gave in marriage— one to a patrician, who became 
a military tribune, the other to Ijicinius Stolo, a prominent plebeian. 
Tills plebeian's wife was one day at the house of her sister, when the 
lictors, conducting the military tribune to his home, struck the door 
with tlieir fasces. As she was ignorant of this usage, she showed signs 
of fear. The laughter and teasing questions of her sister showed her 
how much she was degraded by the plebeian marriage that had nlaced 



NOTES. 119 

her in a house wheie such honors could never come. Her fatlier guessed 
the cause of her troiil)le, and consoled her by promising that she should 
see at lier own house what she had seen at her sister's." Accordingly, 
he joined with her husband in obtaining for the plebeians a share in 
the consular office, B. C. 3()(j. 

" F'roni that time the plebs had every year one of the two consuls, 
and they were not long in succeeding to other magistracies. The plebe- 
ian wore the purple dress, and was preceded by tlie fasces; he admin- 
istered justice; he was a senator; he governed the city, and commanded 
the legions." 

Licinius Stolo was himself consul for the years B. C. 364 and .361; and 
we may hope that Fabia often enjoyed the noise of the twelve lictors 
at her door. 

2. The Gauls were a warlike and powerful people belonging to the 
Celtic branch of the Ai-yan family (see note 1, p. 16). At this time, and 
for a century later, they were continually passing the inountain-barrier 
which divides Central from Southern Europe; and their dominion, at 
its greatest extent, is said to have been as great, though, of course, far 
less compact and well organized, than the Roman empire was after- 
wards. 

On their approach to Rome, the Vestal Virgins (§187) withdrew, still 
carefully guarding the sacred Are in urns, to Caere, in Etruria;' the mass 
of the people, with the fugitives from the conquered army, took refuge 
in other Etruscan towns; but the noblest of the patricians resolved to 
hold the capital. Those who were too old to flirht, lioped to sei've their 
country equally well by a heroic death. They repeated after the Pontifex 
Maximus, a solemn imprecation (see §200) devoting themselves and the 
army of the (lauls to death for the deliverance of Rome. Then, arrayed 
in their most maguifleent apparel, holding their ivory scepters, and 
seated each upon liis ivory throne at the door of his own house, they 
sat motionless while the tumult of plunder and pillage was going on 
around. The barbarians were struck with admiration of these venerable 
figures; and one of them began reverently to stroke the long white 
beard of Papirius. Enraged by this profaning touch, the old senator 
struck him with his ivory .scepter. It was the signal for slaughter. The 
Gauls, recovering from their momentary awe, massacred the noble old 
men without delay. 

The siege of the capital continued six or eight months. At one time 
it was nearly taken, the enemy having scaled the steep cliff" by night. 
The gari-ison were asleep, luit some geese, sacred to .Juno, gave a timely 
alarm, and the citadel was saved. Marcus Manlius, wiio was tlie first 
to awaken, flung the first assailants down the cliti', anil thus maintained 
the fortress until his comrades could come to his aid. 

3. The "Lieinian Laws " were three: 

1. To relieve present distress,— the enormous interestalready paid upon 
debts, was reckoned as part of the principal, and so deducted from the 
sum .still due. 

2. To prevent future poverty,— the lands belonging to the state, but 
hitherto absorbed l)y the patricians, were to be thrown open equally to 
the plebeians, and no man could hold more than 312 acres, or pasture 
more than 100 oxen and 500 sheep on the undivided part. 

o. One consul every year should be a plebeian. 

4. A " Triumph " was the greatest reward ever bestowed upon a 
Roman general by the gratitude of his compatriots. It was subject to 
the following conditions: The victory must have been over foreign foes, 
for it was reckoned as unseemly to exult over fellow-countrymen, how- 
ever guilty tliey might be — it must have been an actual extension of. 
Roman territory, not the recovery of something lost— arid the war must 
be completed, so that the army was withdrawn from the field, for the 
soldiers must share in the honor paid to their general. Moreover, the 
general himself must be of consular, or at least praetorian, rank; an ofl3- 
cer of lower grade could receive an ovation, in which he entered the 
city on foot, but the chariot was a mark of kingly state permitted only 
to the highest. It will be noticed that the ovation— though much mis- 
quoted in our day— was only a secondary honor; it took its name from 
the sheep {ovus) which was .sacrificed at the end of the ceremony in the 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



temple of the Latiu Jupiter on the Alban Mount; while a Triumph 
was ended by a more costly sacrifice of oxen in the temple of the Ro- 
man Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. 

The victorious chief must wait without the walls until the senate 
decreed him the honor of a Trlumpli; and until a special vote of the 
people had continued his military command within the limits of the 
city; for, without this, it must be laid down on entering the gates. On 
the appointed day, he was met at the 'I'riumphal (Jate by tlie senate 
and all the magistrates in their most magiiitiiciit apjiarel. ' Taking tlie 
lead of the procession, they were followed by a hand of trumpeters ami 
a train of wagons laden with the spoils of the conquered countries 
(§230), which were indicated by tablets inscribed in large letters with 
their names. Models, in wood or ivory, of the cajjtured cities; pictures 
of mountains, rivers, or other natural tcatuies of the region subilued; 
loads of gold, silver, precious stones, vases, statues; and whatever was 
most rich, curious, or admirable in the spoils of temples and palaces 
made an important part of the display (see note 2, Ch. XVJ). Then 
came a band of flute-players preceding the white oxen destined for sac- 
rifice, the horns of the oxen being gilded and adorned with wreaths of 
flowers and fillets of white wool. Elephants, or other strange animals 
from the conquered countries, were followed by a train of captive 
princes or generals, with their families, and a crowd of captives of in- 
ferior rank loaded with fetters. 

Then came the twelve lictors of the "Triumphator" in single file, 
their fasces (note 1) wreathed with laurel; and lastly, the geneial him- 
self in his circular chariot drawn by four white horses. His robes glis- 
tened with golden embroidery; he bore a scepter; and his head was 
crowned with Delphic laurel. A slave standing behind him held 
a diadem of Etruscan gold; he was instructed to whisper from time to 
time in his master's ear, " Remember that thou art but a man." Be- 
hind the general rode his sons and lieutenants, and then came the en- 
tire army— their .spears adorned with laurel— who either chanted h,\Tiins 
of praise, or amused themselves and the bystanders with coarse jokes 
and doggerel verses at their general's expense. This rude license of 
speech was thought to prevent the injurious efl'ects of overmuch flat- 
tery, which the Romans, like the modern Italians, were taught especially 
to dread. All the people, in gala-dress, thronged the streets, and every 
temple and shrine were adorned with flowers. 

As a terrible contrast to tlie joy of the day, just as the procession liad 
nearly finished its course to the capital, some of the captured chiefs were 
led aside and put to death. That the noble Pontius suflered this fate, 
is one of the greatest blots upon the honor of Rome. A little more than 
a century later, Jugurtha, after walking in chains in tlie triumph of 
Marius (!:22(M, was cast into the lower dungeon of the same Mamertine 
prison to perish of hunger. The execution of the victims having been 
announced, the sacrifices were offered in the temple of the Capitoline 
Jupiter; the laurel crown of the general was placed as a votive oflering in 
the lap of the image; a magnificent banquet was served; and the "Tri- 
umpliator" was escorted home late at night by a throng of citizens 
bearing torches and pipes. The state jiresented him with a site for a 
liouse, and, at the entrance to this triumphal mansion, a laurel-wreathed 
statue of its founder perpetuated the memory of his glory to his latest 
descendants. 

5. Pyrrhus greatly admired the manly virtues of the Romans, and, 
in reviewing his prisoners, is said to have exclaimed, "If I ha<l soldiers 
like these, I would conquer the world." Hoping to make peace wiih 
the senate, he refused to ransom or exchange the multitude of cajitives 
wlioni he held, but he allowed them all to return to Rome for their winter 
holidays — the Saturnalia— on their simple promise to return if the gov- 
ernment refuseil a treaty. The senate refused, and every man returned. 

In military genius, Pyrrhus was undoubtedly the greatest leader of 
his age, and Hannibal is even said to have ranked him second only 
to Alexander (see p. 127, note 8.) Expelled from his kingdom at the age 
of seventeen, he distinguished himself in the wars of Alexander's gen- 
erals (^ 167), and, in a few years, not only regained his own dominion, 
but conquered all Macedonia; of this, however, he was deprived by his 
treacherous ally, Lysimachus. By his Italian expedition he gained 
nothing but a great name in history. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ROMAN KKI'lMil.IC, CONI'INUEI) — Pl'NIC WARS. 





Hannibal Crossing the Alps. 

1\|\/'IAVING conquered Italy, Rome was now to 



come into collision with the great Republic 
of Carthage, on the opposite coast of the 
Mediterranean. The island of Sicily was the object of 
dispute. The Romans, like the Spartans, despised com- 
merce, and had few ships, their wars having hitherto been 
upon land; but they prepared, with great spirit, to meet 
Carthage upon her own element. A Carthaginian war- 
vessel, wrecked on their coast, served them for a model; 
in two months they had a fleet of loo ships, and in their 
very first sea-fight gained a decisive victory. A second 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



and third were equally successful, and the consuls now 
invaded Africa, laying waste the rich lands about Carthage 
with fire and sword, B. C. 256. 

207. One half the victorious army returned to Rome 
on the approach of winter, while Reg'ulus,^ one of the 
consuls, remained, and, for a time, carried all before him. 
Multitudes of towns fell into his power, and Carthage 
itself might have been starved into submission, but for 
the arrival of Xanthip'pus, a Spartan general, and an army 
of Greek hirelings. With this timely aid, the Carthaginians 
were at length able to defeat and capture Regulus. The 

fleet, which was carrying home the shattered 

remnant of the Roman force, was wrecked in 

a storm, and the .Sicilian coast was strewn with the remains 

of 260 ships and 100,000 men. Nevertheless, Roman 

courage never wavered, and a few years later, Metel'lus 

gained a brilliant victory over the Carthaginians 

at Panor'mus. A hundred elephants made part 

of the triumphal procession * which attended his return to 

Rome. 

208. The next eight years were full of disasters to Rome. 
Hamilcar Barca, father of the great Hannibal, ravaged the 
coasts of Italy, and there was no Roman leader of equal 
genius to oppose him. At length her wealthy citizens ral- 
lied all their forces, and fitted out a fleet with which the 
consul Luta'tius gained a decisive victory among the yEgu'sae. 
The exhausted Carthaginians, disheartened by this reverse, 
now agreed to surrender Sicily and all the neighboring isl- 
ands, pay 2000 talents ($2,500,000), and release all Roman 
prisoners without ransom. The First Punic War had lasted 
nearly 24 years (B. C. 264-241). 

209. In the interval which followed, Rome seized Sar- 
dinia and Corsica, and, by a three years' war, conquered 
Cisalpine Gaul. The latter was planted with Roman colo- 
nies; but the three islands, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, 



THE PUNIC WARS. 1 23 

were organized into pnnnnces — the first examples of the 
system of government by which Rome afterward managed 
her immense foreign possessions. The consuls, on com- 
pleting their term of office, divided the provinces between 
them ; and each exercised, in his own province, both civil 
and military command. One tenth of the whole produce 
of these countries went as tribute to Rome, beside a duty 
of one-twentieth on all imports and exports. The fertile 
fields of Sicily became the granaries of Rome, while the 
forests of Corsica afforded abundant materials for her 
fleets. 

210. If Carthage had seemed to submit, it was only for 
a time. Her great general, Ham'ilcar,- foreseeing a renewal 
of the war, devoted all his energy to the 

conquest of Spain, and, at his death, left 
to his son-in-law, Has'drubal, the task of improving the 
resources of that rich country. Hasdrubal built towns, 
fostered trade and tillage, drilled the natives into soldiers, 
and, by working the newly found silver-mines, laid up an 
ample treasure for the coming war. Han'nibal, son of 
Hamilcar, had meanwhile grown to manhood. When only 
nine years old, he had sworn, at his father's command, 
an oath of eternal hatred to Rome; and a youth spent in 
the Spanish wars had only strengthened this feeling, while 
it developed and trained his wonderful genius. 

211. Placed at the head of the army,^ Hannibal first 
made sure of his power over Spain, and then deliberately 
sought a quarrel with Rome, which led to the Second 
Punic War. The Romans expected him to cross the sea 
to the western coast of Italy; but Hannibal surprised 
them by a far bolder movement. Crossing the Ebro and 
the Pyrenees, with an army of 90,000 foot, 12,000 horse, 
and many elephants, he marched through the friendly 
tribes of southern Gaul; climbed the snowy Alps, fighting 
his way against hosts of enemies, as well as the mightier 



124 THE AiWCIENT WORLD. 

forces of nature; and descended upon the plain of the Po, 
attended by scarcely more than one fourth of the mighty 
army with which, in the spring of 218 B. C, he had set 
out from Carthagena. 

212. The Cisalpine Gauls hailed him as a deliverer; 
and in three great battles he routed the best and bravest 
of the Roman soldiery. Fa'bius was now made Dictator, 
with unlimited powers. Seeing the impossibility of defeat- 
ing Hannibal in battle, he tried to weary him with harass- 
ing marches, cutting off his stragglers and supply-trains 
while refusing to fight. But the Romans murmured at 
this "Fabian policy;" and the consuls, listening at length 

to their demands for a battle, led a great army 
to Cannae, only to suffer the most overwhelming 
defeat that Rome ever knew. One consul, 80 senators, 
and nearly 50,000 men lay dead upon the field. All 
southern Italy, except the garrisoned towns, submitted to 
Hannibal. The kings of Macedon and Syracuse allied 
themselves with Carthage, and for fourteen years Hannibal 
maintained his footing in the peninsula. 

213. The two Scip'ios, Cne'ius and Pub'lius, meanwhile 
managed the Roman interests in Spain with great skill, 
and prevented reinforcements from reaching Hannibal. 
When, at last, his brother came to his relief, he was 

defeated and slain near the Metau'rus. Hanni- 

B. C. 207. 1 1 1 1 J 

bal held out four years longer in the mountain- 
fastness of Bruttium ; but at last the younger Scipio,* son 
of Publius, conducted an army into Africa, and the Cartha- 
ginians were compelled to recall their great general. The 

final battle was fought at Za'ma; the power of 

H. C. 202. /^ 1 

Carthage was overthrown ; and, in the peace 
which followed, she was compelled to surrender Spain and 
all her island settlements, with her fleets and elephants, 
and to engage, beside paying a yearly tribute, to make no 
war without the permission of Rome. 



MAP No. V. 



GROWTH OF ROMAN FREEDOM. 



1. The "Good Laws" of Servius TuUius . . B. C. 578-534. 

2. Expulsion of Kings; two Praetors elected . . 510. 

3. Secession of Plebeians ; Tribunes of the People 

elected ........ 494. 

4. First Agrarian Law divides State Lands . . 486. 

5. PUBLILIAN Law gives Plebeians the right to elect 

their own Magistrates . . . . .471. 

6. Laws of the Twelve Tables ; Consuls chosen 

by the whole people ...... 449. 

7. Right of Intermarriage between Patricians and 

Plebeians ..... ... 444. 

8. Licinian Laws relieve the poverty and distress 

which follow the Gallic Invasion, by abating 
usury, re-dividing public lands, and admitting 
one Plebeian Consul ...... 366. 

9. HoRTENSiAN LAWS distribute the Sabine Lands . 286. 
10. Agrarian Laws of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus 

lighten burdens of soldiers and common peo- 
ple, and favor plebeian merchants and bankers . 1 33-1 21, 




H U. Vait, dtl. 



50 



THE ROMAIV EMPIRE 

IN" ITS GEEATEST EXTENT. 
Scale of jMiles. 







INCREASE OF ROMAN TERRITORY. 



Roma Quadrata on the Palatine Mount . . B. C 
The " Seven Hills," inclosed by wall of Servius 

Tullius ..... 
Conquest of Latium 

" the yEquian lands 

the Samnites and Sabines 

Umbria and Etruria ; Italian Peninsula 

subject to Rome 
Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica 
" Carthaginian possessions in Spain . 
Cisalpine Gaul ..... 
Macedonia and Greece 
" Carthaginian possessions in Africa . 
" Spain, completed .... 
Pergamus becomes the Roman " Province of Asia ' 
Bithynia conquered, 74; Cilicia, 67, 66; Syria 
Paphlagonia and Palestine, 63 ; Pontus 
Conquest of Gaul completed by Csesar 
Egypt becomes a Roman province 

C 
D. 
Dacia (Roumania and Transylvania) 
Mesopotamia ..... 



Conquest of Britain 



I A. 



•753- 

578-534 
338. 
304- 
290. 

266. 

241-238. 

206. 

201-191. 

168-146. 

146. 

133- 

130. 

65. 

62. 

58-51. 

30- 

55- 

79- 

106. 

115. 



DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE. 125 

214. Scipio, now called Africa'nus, in honor of his vic- 
tory, was welcomed at Rome with a magnificent triumph 
(§207, note). Rome rewarded her veteran soldiers with the 
confiscated lands of the Italian nations who had aided 
Hannibal; then turned her attention to the East, where 
Antiochus the Great (§170) had welcomed the great 
Carthaginian to his court, and seemed to be challenging 
a contest. The battle of Magnesia, B. C. 190, destroyed 
his hopes, and made the opening scene of Roman conquests 
in Asia. A war with Macedon ended in the captivity of 
the last of her kings (§177), and Rome was now acknowl- 
edged as the leading power in the whole civilized world. 

215. Carthage, her disarmed and humbled victim, was 
only awaiting her doom. Ca'to,^the sternest of the Roman 
statesmen, never ended a speech in the Senate without 
the words, "Carthage must be destroyed." To prolong 
their existence, the Carthaginians submitted to the most 
unreasonable demands; but, when ordered to destroy their 
beloved city and remove to a new site away from the 
sea, they refused with one voice. Then began a four-years' 
war, in which the sole operation was the siege and defense 
of Carthage. Night and day every man, woman, and child 
toiled at the defenses of the city. A new fleet was built 
in the blockaded port, and a channel was cut through the 
land to enable it to reach the sea. Two thousand shields 
or weapons were made every day in the arsenal, and the 
women gave their long hair for bowstrings When at last 
the Romans forced an entrance to the city, they had to 
fight their way, house by house and street by street. Fires 
were kindled in all directions; and when, after 17 days, 
the flames were arrested, only heaps of ashes remained of 
the homes of 700,000 human beings. 

216. The lands of Carthage became the Roman "Prov- 
ince of Africa." The same year Corinth, also, was destroyed 
(§178), and Greece became the "Province of Achaia." 



126 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

War was still going on in Spain,^ where the town of Nu- 
mantia withstood a long siege with heroic courage. It 
was starved into surrender, 133 B. C; and at length the 
whole peninsula, except the Asturias, submitted, and was 
divided into three provinces, Hither and Farther Spain, 
and Lusitania, now Portugal. All southern Europe, with 
an important part of Africa, was now subject to Rome; 
and in Egypt and Asia Minor many client-states owned 
her power and begged her protection. The relation of 
Rome to Egypt, Pergamus, Judaea, etc., was much like 
that of a proud patrician to his dependents whom he fed 
and domineered over, while permitting no other person to 
injure them. See Ch. XII, note 2. 

Trace, on Map 5, the march of Hannibal from Spain. Point 
out Cannaj, the Metauru.s, Magnesia, Carthage, Tunis, Panormus 
(now Palermo), Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily. 

Mommsen is the best authority for this and the following periods. 
Arnold's History of Rome was, unhappily, left unfinished in the 
midst of the events described in this chapter. 

NOTES. 

1. Regulus was sent to Rome in company with the Carthaginian 
embassadors wlio were to otler terms of peace. He was to return if the 
terms w<ie rejected, and tlie inhuman cruelty of the Carthaginians (^83) 
in dcalinn witli their prisoners, was wcU known. Nevertlieless, Regu- 
lus stron^'ly urged tlie senate not to make i>eace, and reluctantly they 
Yielded to "liis arguments, for they would gladly have purchased his life 
by some concession, tliough, of course, no one dreamed of his violating 
liis promise to return. He went to Carthage, and sultered, it is said, a 
most painful tleath at the hands of his disappointed captors. 

2 Hamilcar bad commanded in Sicily during the First Punic War, 
and defended himself successfully for five years against the Romans. 
He was the leader of the popular party in Carthage, where, in the in- 
terval between the two wars, lie put down a formidable revolt of the 
mercenary troops. 

"Before departing for Spain, the general performed a solemn sacri- 
fice to propitiate the gods for the success of his enterprise. The omens 
were declared favorable. Hamilcar had poured the libation on the 
victim, which was duly offered on the altar, when, on a sudden, he 
desired all his officers and the ministers of the sacrifice to step aside 
to a little distance, and then called his son Hannibal. Hannibal, a boy 
of nine years old, went up to his father, and Hamilcar asked him kindly 
if he would like to go with him to the war. The boy eagerly caught at 
the otter, and, with a child's earnestness, implored his father to take 
him Then Hamilcar took him by tlie hand and led him up to the al- 
tar, and bade him, if he wished to follow his father, lay his hand upon 
the sacrifice and swear that lie would never be the friend of the Ro- 



NOTES. 127 

mans. Hannibal swore, and never to his latest hour forgot his vow. 
He went forth devoted to his country's gods, as the appointed euemy 
and destroyer of their enemies; and the thought of his high calling 
dwelt ever on his mind, directing and concentrating the spirit and en- 
thusiasm of his youth, and mingling with it the forecast, the great pur- 
poses, and tlie deep and unwavering resolution of the matufest man- 

"The story of his solemn vow was told by Hannibal himself, many 
years afterwards, to Antiochus, king of Syria (see J 214); but, at the time, 
it was heard by no other ears than his father's; and, when he sailed 
with Hamilcar to Spain, none knew that he went with any feelings 
beyond the common, light-hearted curiosity of a child. But the Romans 
vieweil Hamilcar's expedition with alarm, and were probably well 
aware that he would brook his country's humiliation only so long as 
he was unable to avenge it."— .lr/)a?(/'.v History 0/ i?09ne, i^p. 459, 460. 

Hamilcar was killed in battle B. C. 229. 

3 Hannibal was probably born B. C. 247, and was scarcely 26 years 
of age, when, on the death of his brother-in-law, Hasdrubal, the will of 
the soldiers, confirmed l)y the government in Carthage, placed him at 
the head of the forces in Spain. In two campaigns he subdued the 
Spanish tribes that were hostile to liis rule; then, in the spring of 219 
B. C, laid siege to Saguntum, a city in alliance with Rome. Its resist- 
ance was long and desperate, but in eight months Hannibal was master 
of the place. His march from Carthageua to Italy occupied five months, 
of which onlv rtfteen days were spent in passing the Alps. On the left 
bank of the Trebia, he met a Roman army of greatly superior numbers 
to his own, and routed it with heavy loss. All the Gauls now declared 
in his favor, and he wintered in security while filling up his broken 
ranks with recruits that pressed in from every side. His second en- 
counter with tlie Romans was in a narrow pass between Lake Thrasy- 
menus and a rocky declivity of the Apennines. Here his victory was 
more complete than before. Thousands ot Romans, including the Con- 
sul Flaminius, fell by the sword; thousands perished in the lake, and 
15,000 remained as prisonei's in Hannibal's camps. Of these, he dis- 
missed all the Italian allies, without ransom, hoping to separate their 
people from Roman influence. His third great battle was at Cannse; 
and if, after his victory, he had marched directly upon Rome, it seems 
probable that he might have put a triumpliant end to the war. But he 
waited for reinforcements whicli never came, and it is said that his 
veterans were rendered less warlike by tlie luxury of their winter in 
Capua. Hannibal's energy never flagged ; appearing suddenly in the 
most unexpected miarters, he bewildered the Romans by the swiftness 
of his movements; and not only throughout Italy, but in Macedonia, 
Sicily, and Africa, lie was the soul of tlie great contest. 

When, after the battle of Zama, Hannibal saw all his labor of twenty 
years set at nauglit, he only set himself to find means of renewing hos- 
tilities witli Rome. As chief magistrate of Carthage, he effected reforms 
In tlie rtuances and other departments of the government; but, in so 
doing, he enraged the opposite party, and was at length compelled to 
flee from his native city. He was received with great honor b.y Aiiti- 
oclius III., of Syria, who was glad to employ him as a commander, but 
failed to profit Ijy his advice. One condition demanded by the Romans 
ill making peace with Antiochus, B. C, 190, was the surrender of Hanni- 
bal ; but the great general was warned in time, and took refuge with the 
king of Bithynia. Seven years later, the Romans sent an embassy to 
demand him, and, seeing that escape was hopeless, he put an end to 
his life by poison. 

Plutarch says that Hannibal and Scipio once met at the court of An- 
tiochus, ill Ephesus, and had a friendly discussion concerning military 
rank. Hannibal declared that Alexander was the greatest general the 
world had ever seen, Pyrrhus the second, and himself the third. Scipio 
smiled and said, "But in what rank would you have placed yourself 
if you had conquered me?" "O Scipio," was the reply, "then I would 
have ranked myself not third, but first." 

4. To the Scipios more than to any other family Rome is said to 
have been indebted for her conquest of the whole Mediterranean world. 
Four of the family bore the surname Asiaticus, on account of their sue- 



THE AXCIENT WORLD. 



cesses in the East; aiifl an equal nunilier, tliat of Africanus; but the con- 
queror of Hannibal is reiiardod as tlie greatest man" Koine ever produced, 
witli tlic exception of Julius Casar. He never engaged in any impor- 
tant business without tirst preparing his mind by prayer in the temple 
on the Capitoliue Mount. At the age of 24 (B. C. 21(h, he was appointed 
to the commami of the Roman forces in Spain, and distinguislied him- 
self by the capture of Carthagena and all its stores of arms and food. 
The next year he gained a brilliant victory over Hasdrubal, the brother 
of Hannibal, and, in a few years, less by fighting than by his personal 
influence, he had won all Spain to obedience to Rome. His energy and 
courage were fully equaled by his generosity and courtesy toward all 
who fell into his power; and the Si)aiiisli people even wished to make 
him their king. Returning to Italy, he was unanimously chosen consul 
for the year 205 B. C, and earnestly desired to carry the war into Africa; 
but the senate, jealous of the successes of so yoiing a general, refused 
him an army. They could not, however, prevent his being joined by 
volunteers, and so many young men from the allied towns flocked to 
his standard, that he soon had a great force, both on land and .sea. 
His success in Africa has been told in the text. On his return to Italy, 
in 201 B. C, the delight of the people at their deliverance from tlie 
long terror in which Hannibal had held them, broke forth in extrava- 
gant demonstrations. They would even have made him consul and 
dictator for life, and would have placed his statue in the temple of the 
Capitoline Jupiter. But Scipio knew the jealousy of the senate, and re- 
fused these marks of honor, only accepting tliesurname Africanus in 
memory of his chief victory. He afterwards distinguished himself both 
in war and negotiations against Antiochus III., at whose court he is 
said to have met Hannibal (see note 3). These two men were noble 
enough to recognize each other's greatness, and Scipio was the only 
Roman senator who opposed the mean per.secutions by which his coun- 
trymen showed their fear of the great Carthaginian. He is said to 
have died in the same j'ear as Hannibal and Philopoemen, B. C. 183. 

4. Cato the Censor, or the Elder, was of plebeian family, and was 
born at Tusculum, among the Sabine hills, B. C. 23-1. In his youth lie 
served against Hannibal, and to the end of his life he was the most re-, 
lentless foe of Carthage. In the intervals of war he worked on his farm, 
and, though he afterwards became celebrated as an orator in Rome, he 
always jirided himself on retaining the plain and simple habits of his 
boyhood. His talents were first recognized while he was pleading the 
causes of his poorer neighbors in the courts. He was invited to Rome, 
and .soon rose high in otfice. He bitterly op])osed the Greek tastes and 
luxurious manners, which, witli increasing wealth, had become fash- 
ionable among liis countrymen; and, wheii elected Censor (*. e., keeper 
of the public morals) in 1.S4 B. ("., his attempt to force his own sober and 
frugal .style of living upon tiie patricians, occasioned great di.scontent. 
Still, he was generally respected as a model of old-fashioned Roman 
virtue. 

His great-grandson, "Cato the Younger," was one of the most deter- 
mined opponents of Cwsar, and killed himself when opposition proved 
to be hopeless. 

6. " Spain was the only one of the great countries of Europe where 
the mass of tiie people were not of the Aryan stock (see note 1, p. 16). 
The greater part of the land was still held by the Iberiann, as a small 
part is even now by their descendants, the Ba^.ques. But, in the central 
part of the peninsula, Celtic tribes had pressed in, and we have seen 
that there were some Phcenician colonies in the south, and .some Greek 
colonies on the east coast. In the time between the First and Second 
Punic Wars, Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, and Hannibal had won all Spain 
for Carthage. But during the Second Punic War, between the years 211 
and 206, the Carthaginian territories in Spain were all won for Rome 
by the Seipios. Spain has always been a hard country to conquer, and 
the Romans had constant wars with the native tribes. Still we may ' 
look on the Roman dominion in Spain as Anally established in B.C. 
1.38, when the younger Scipio took Numantia. From this time all Spain 
was a Roman province, except some of the mountainous parts in the 
north, where native tribes still remained free." — Freeman''s "■General 
Sketch," pp. 68, 69. 



CHAPTER XV. 



ROMAN REPUBLIC, CONTINUED — CIVIL WARS. 




Roman Soldier. 



CENTURY of internal conflict ends 
the history of the Roman Republic. 
The strife between patricians and 
plebeians was long ago ended; but in 
its place had arisen a grinding, igno- 
ble jealousy between the rich and the 
poor. Rome was a "commonwealth 
of millionaires and beggars." Many 
rich proprietors held four times the 
amount of public lands to which the 
law entitled them ; and, instead of hir- 
ing free labor, preferred to cultivate 
by means of gangs of slaves who could 
be bought cheap after every Roman 
victory. These slaves, often the 
equals of their masters but for misfortune in war, — strong, 
intelligent, and trained to the use of arms — constituted one 
of the greatest dangers to which Rome was now exposed. 

218. In the year 133, B. C, Tibe'rius Grac'chus,' Tribune 
of the People, brought forward a bill for a re-distribution 
of the state lands, limiting the patricians, as before, to 500 
jugera (about 312 acres), and dividing the remainder into 
homesteads for the poor. His fellow-tribune, Octa'vius, 
vetoed the bill; but Tiberius moved the people to depose 
him, and the Agrarian Law was passed. Other propositions 
followed, designed to raise up a middle-class of peasants, 
which would prevent collision between the two extremes 
of society. But the wrath of the wealthy class was now 
excited, and Tiberius was murdered on the steps of the 
Capitol. 

Hist— g. (129) 



f 



130 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

219. His younger and yet abler brother," Ca'ius Grac'- 
chus, became Tribune of the People, B. C. 124. He 
provided for the hungry crowd by forming new colonies, 
not only in Italy, but beyond the seas, and by building 
immense granaries at Rome, whence the government dealt 
out wheat at less than half price to all who chose to apply 
for it. The first of these measures was wise and benef- 
icent ; the second was very dangerous, for it drew into 
Rome a thriftless crowd from all the country, and there 
were never wanting leaders whose wicked ambition made 
use of these people for their own ends — sometimes for the 
destruction of the state. Caius Gracchus lost his life in a 
popular tumult; 250 of his followers fell with him, and 
3000 were strangled in prison by order of the Senate.-''^ 

220. Roman virtue, if not dead, was in a fatal decline. 

A war with Jugur'tha — an African prince, 
°^ who had murdered two heirs to the kingdom 
of Numidia in order to seat himself on its throne — brought 
to light the disgraceful fact that even senators and con.suls 
would sell themselves for gold. One general made a dis- 
honorable peace, and another, with his whole army, passed 
under the yoke (§ 201). At this humiliating crisis, when 
neither great wealth nor noble birth escaped reproach 
Caius Ma'rius, a Latin farmer's son, w'as made consul and 
entrusted with the war in Africa. Among his officers was 
Corne'lius Sul'la, a young patrician, of dissolute character, 



*The noble character of the Gracchi was due, in great measure, 
to their mother, Cornelia, a daughter of Scipio Africanus. Their 
father died when they were very young, and Cornelia, refusing all 
the lures of ambition — among others a royal crown — devoted her- 
self to the training of her boys. She lived to see both of their 
young lives sacrificed for the good of their country ; and, though - 
the Senate forbade her to mourn for them, a grateful people after- 
wards placed upon her tomb the proudest of inscriptions: ''Cornelia, 
the Mother of the Gracchi." 



MARIUS AND SULLA. I31 

but great ability, to whose tact and bravery the capture of 
Jugurtha was due. That wily prince was starved to death 
in a Roman dungeon, B. C. 106. 

221. Marius, in violation of the law, was reelected to the 
consulship iive successive years. Italy was trembling at the 
approach of two great hordes of barbarians from beyond 
the Danube, who had destroyed a Roman army of 80,000 
men at Arausio, on the Rhone, and now threatened the 
peninsula. The Teutones were to enter Italy from Roman 
Gaul, while the Cimbri were to i)ass through Switzerland 
and descend upon the Lombard plain to the eastward. 
Marius and Sulla hastened to meet them, and 

gained a victory at Aix, which ended in the 
total destruction of the Teutones. The next spring the 
Cimbri were defeated at Vercellae, and 60,000 captives 
were sent to the slave-markets of Rome. 

222. The danger arising from so numerous and warlike 
a slave-class (§ 217) was already felt in Sicily. In the 
First Servile War (B. C. 134-132), 200,000 rebels were 
in arms; and the Second, which broke out B. C. 102, taxed 
for three years the best Roman generals. It was suppressed 
B. C. 99 ; but the masters did not soon forget their terror. 

223. Another peril threatened Rome from her Italian 
allies, who, disappointed in the hope of full " Roman 
rights," which Caius Gracchus had wished to give them, 
formed a federal Republic by themselves, and defeated sev- 
eral armies which were sent to subdue them. Rome gained 
peace only by yielding to the just demands of the states. 
All the Italians were admitted to full Roman citizenship; 
the "Latin right" (§ 205) being reserved for Spaniards and 
other provincials — and so the "Social War" was ended. 

224. A .furious contest, which now arose between Marius 
and Sulla for the command in a war against Pontus,^ ended 
by making Sulla master of Rome and driving Marius into 



I 



132 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

exile. But when Sulla had departed for the East, Marius 
returned. By capturing the corn-fleets from Sicily and 
Africa, he starved Rome into surrender, and 
proceeded to massacre all who were opposed to 
him. But he died on the eighteenth day of his seventh 
consulship, and Sulla, returning with his victorious army, 
soon turned the tables. 

225. In five campaigns he had brought the Pontic War 
to a triumphant conclusion, and had recovered the revolted 
provinces of Achaia, Macedonia, and Asia. He came laden _ 
with treasure and followed by a devotedly attached soldiery, 

with whom he many times defeated the " Mari- 
ans" and established a new Reign of Terror at 

Rome. Six thousand soldiers were massacred by his order; 

new "proscription-lists" were published every day, and the 

streets flowed with blood. 

226. Sulla was made Dictator, with unlimited power; 
and he now tried, with some show of reason, to restore at 
once the simple virtues and the patrician rule which had 
belonged to the early days of the Republic. But, though 
aristocratic government was restored for a time, Roman 
virtue was dead ; and ^ome, enslaved by luxury, could no 
longer hope to escape an outward servitude, whenever her 
master should appear. At the end of three years, Sulla 
suddenly resigned his power and retired to Puteoli, where 
he died, B. C. 78. 

227. The Romans, though rich and luxurious, were 
hardly less brutal than the wolves whom tradition made 
their foster-brothers. Their favorite sport was to see the 
bravest of their captives fight with wild beasts, or butcher 
each other in the arena, "to make a Roman holiday." 

One of these "gladiators," named Spar'tacus, 

moved his comrades to revolt; they were joined 

by enslaved herdsmen from the mountains, so that their 

number rose, the first year, to 40,000, and the second, to 



I 



VICTORIES OF POMPEY, 133 

100,000 men. For two years they defeated all the armies 
of Rome, and convulsed all Italy with terror ; but jealousy 
divided their forces ; Spartacus was defeated and slain by 
Cras'sus, and the remnant of his followers, attempting to 
escape northward, were met and destroyed by Pom'pey. 

228. This general had been a favorite lieutenant of 
Sulla; and he had distinguished himself by conquering the 
remnant of the Marian party in Africa and 

Spain. He now received the consulship with 
Crassus. After its expiration he rendered yet more bril- 
liant services by sweeping the Mediterranean of Cilician 
pirates, who were ravaging all its coasts; by ending the 
wars with Pontus and placing that country, as well as 
Bithynia and Syria, under Roman rule. He captured Jeru- 
salem by a three months' siege, B. C. 63, and established 
Hyrca'nus as High Priest and ruler of the people. 

229. Rome, meanwhile, barely escaped ruin from the 
corrupt elements within her borders. Cat'iline, a dissolute 
nobleman, plotted with comrades like himself to murder the 
consuls, overthrow the government, and assume control of 
affairs. Plans were laid with great skill and 

secrecy, and the wicked plot seemed likely to 
succeed ; but, happily, it became known in time to Cic'ero, 
the great lawyer and orator, who was then consul, and by 
his prompt measures it was brought to naught. Catiline 
fell, fighting at the head of his legions, and most of his 
accompHces were put to death. Cicero was rewarded by 
the unbounded gratitude of his fellow-citizens, and by the 
title, "Father of his Country." 

230. Pompey might now have been master of the Roman 
world; but, to avoid exciting alarm, he disbanded his army 
as soon as he set foot in Italy, and journeyed privately to 
Rome. In the triumph (§ 207, note) decreed him by the 
Senate, he was declared to have conquered 22 kings and 
12,000,000 of people, and to have almost doubled the rev- 



134 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

enues of Rome. Nevertheless, the aristocracy, Avho had 
opposed his appointment in Asia, now refused to ratify his 
acts, or to give lands to his veteran soldiers. Pompey, 
though by birth and taste an aristocrat, had to ally himself 
with Ju'lius Cae'sar, the rising leader of the Marian party, 
in order to fuliill his pledges to his troops. 

231. Crassus, on account of his great wealth, Avas ad- 
mitted as a partner in their plans ; and the three formed 

the First Triumvii'ate , which for several years 
ruled the Roman world. It was not a magis- 
tracy, but a private agreement — what, in modern times, 
would be called a "Ring." Ccesar was made consul, and, 
by dividing the rich Campanian fields among the poorer 
citizens, satisfied the claims of Pompey's veterans. At the 
end of his term he chose the government of Gaul (§ 216) 
— the poorest and most turbulent of all the provinces. 

232. Pompey and Crassus became consuls. When their 
year was out, Pompey went to Spain, and Crassus under- 
took a war with Parthia — now a vast empire reaching 
westward to the Euphrates — in the hope of increasing 
his wealth by the plunder of the Asiatic cities. But he 
suffered an overwhelming defeat near Car'rhse, and was 
treacherously murdered by a Parthian officer, B. C. 53. 

233. By swiftness, energy, and good management, Caesar 
subdued the Gauls in eight campaigns, beside invading 
Britain and Germany. In choosing the most difficult of the 
provincial governments, he had especially wished to train 
an army which would enable him to carry forward the great 
scheme which he was maturing. He perceived that the 
mere city-government which had sufficed for Rome in her 
poorer days, was unfit for the almost world-wide dominion 
which she had now attained. He wished to civilize western 
Europe, give equal rights of Roman citizenship to all the 
provinces, and make one compact Empire out of so many 
scattered nationalities. 



I 



C^SAR DICTATOR. 135 

234. Pompey's friendship was now turned into jealousy 
and hatred, and with many powerful men at Rome he 
was plotting Caesar's destruction. The Senate ordered the 
whole army in Gaul to be disbanded on a certain day. 
Caesar's resolution was quickly taken. Crossing 

the little river Ru'bicon, which separated his 
province from Italy, he marched with his devoted legions 
upon Rome. Pompey retired into Greece; and the nobles 
following him organized a new Senate at Thessalonica. 

235. Pompey was master of Spain, Africa, and the East- 
ern provinces, while Caesar had only Italy, Illyricum, and 
Gaul ; but the wonderful energy of the latter turned the 
balance in his favor. His able policy soon restored order 
and confidence in Italy ; then, by a toilsome but decisive 
campaign of forty days, he conquered the Pompeian party 
in Spain ; and, returning to Rome only long enough to be 
elected consul and pass some laws giving relief to debtors 
and proscribed persons, he pressed on into Greece, where 
the great decisive combat took place at Pharsalia in Thes- 
saly. Pompey was defeated, and, fleeing into Egypt, was 
murdered by an officer of Ptolemy, B. C. 48. 

236. His party rallied in great force in the province of 
Africa, but Caesar defeated them at Thapsus, where 50,000 
Pompeians were left dead upon the field. Caesar 

was now the acknowledged head of the Roman 
world. The Senate declared him Dictator and Imperator* 
for life, with liberty to name his successor. His statues 
were placed in the temples, and his name was invoked in 
legal oaths like that of a god. Cssar used his power in a 
way that proved his genius to be even greater for govern- 



*This title had often been given by acclamation to successful 
generals ; it now acquired a special meaning equivalent to the mod- 
ern Emperor. Caesar's name has also given to three great empires 
their title for the highest dignitary : Kaiser and Czar. 



1 



136 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

ment than for war. Instead of the proscriptions and mas- 
sacres which had followed the return of Marias and Sulla 
(§§ 224, 225), amnesty to all was his policy. He seemed 
to have forgotten the injuries which he had personally 
received, and sought out men of merit in all parties to aid 
him in the restoration of order and prosperity. 

237. He reformed the calendar,^ which had fallen into 
great confusion, and with such wisdom that it has needed 
only one slight amendment from his time to our own. He 
planned great works of public utility for Rome, while he 
equally studied the interests of every part of his vast em- 
pire. He rebuilt the cities of Corinth and Carthage, and 
founded many new colonies in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 
giving to all the people as nearly as possible the same 
privileges as to those of Italy. Yet all these works and 
many more were accomplished in the intervals of seven 
toilsome campaigns, which he conducted between his cross- 
ing the Rubicon and his death — a period of little more 
than five years. 

238. Caesar still had bitter enemies, and they were joined 
by a few honest Republicans, who believed that the one- 
man power had destroyed Roman freedom. On the eve 
of his departure for Asia — where he meant to punish the 

Parthians for the fate of Crassus (§ 232) — 
Caesar was murdered in the Senate House. 
But though the Dictator was dead, the Romans were not 
free. It was easier to destroy one man's life than to 
restore to the nation the strong and simple character 
which had been the true foundation of the Republic. 
The conquests in the East had brought to Italy a crowd 
of Asiatics, who lowered the tone of Roman society; 
and, ever since ease and wealth had been regarded by 
the people at large as of more value than honesty and 
freedom, the Republic had been doomed. A new Tri- 
lunvirate (§ 231), composed of Mark An'tony, Lep'idus, 



4 



DEFEAT OF ANTONY. 137 

and Caesar Octavia'nus — nephew and heir of the great 
Dictator— soon divided the world among them. A pro- 
scription followed, in which 2,000 knights and 300 sena- 
tors — among the latter, Cicero,^ the Father of his Country 
— lost their lives. The last of Caesar's murderers were 
defeated at Philippi, 42 B. C, and ended their lives by 
suicide. 

239. The Triumvirate was soon broken by the defection 
of Lepidus, and a quarrel between Antony and Octavian. 
Antony was enslaved by the arts of the Egyptian queen, 
Cleopatra (§ 174), on whom he bestowed Syrian territories 
which belonged to Rome, and for whose sake he forgot 
both duty and honor. In a great battle off 
Actium, he was deserted by many of his " ' ^'' 

officers, and fled to Egypt, leaving the victory to Octa- 
vian. The next year he was again defeated at Alexandria, 
and in despair put an end to his own life. Cleopatra 
followed his example. Egypt was made a province of 
Rome, and the younger Cassar was now lord of the world. 

Point out, on Map 5, the provinces of Ctesar and of Pompey 
before the battle of Pharsalia, \ 235. The site of Crassus' defeat, 
\ 232. — Pharsalia, Thapsus, Philippi, Actium, Gaul, Britain, Germany, 
Numidia, the Danube, the Rhone, Arausio, Aquce Sextii^ (Aix), 
Vercellae, Puteoli, Thessalonica. 

Read Merivale's History of the Romans under the Empire, For- 
syth's Life of Cicero, Cssar's Commentaries, and Mommsen's History 
of Rome, Vol. IV. 

NOTES. 

1. Sempronius Gracchus, the father of the two Tribunes, was a plebe- 
ian, but a distinguished general, and twice a consul, who, in 176 B. C, 
had conquered tlie island of Sardinia for Rome. Tiberius Gracchus 
had served at the capture and destruction of Carthage (g 215) under his 
brother-in-law, Scipio Africanus llie Younger, and liad afterwards dis- 
tinguished himself in the Nuraantian war in Spain. The measure whicli 
cost him his life, through the violent opposition of the nobles, was only 
the revival of the Licinian I^aw (^ 197 and note), which had never been 
repealed, tliough completely disregarded. 

2. Caius Gracchus, while still a youth, had drawn upon himself the 
Jealousy of the aristocracy by his great talents and persuasive eloquence; 
but during his service in Sardinia he had risen high in tlie favor of 



138 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



soldiers and people. As tribune, one of liis laws transferred the judicial 
power from the senate to the equestrian order, and another created the 
class of great mercliants and bankers, hitlierto unknown in Rome, by 
assigning to distinguished plebeians tlie collection of revenues in the 
provinces. He himself conducted a colony to Carthage, and, after at- 
tending to their establislunent, returned in seventy days. 

He desired to give the full rights of Roman citizenship to all free 
Italians. But the senate liad now undermined his intluence witli the 
people by a stratagem. They induced M. Livius Drusus. the new tribune, 
to propose still more radical changes, which, however, were never in- 
tended to be carried out. Opimius, a bitter enemy to Gracchus, became 
consul, while the latter descended to a private station, and several of 
his laws were i-epealed. Fulvius Flaccus, a rash partisan of Caius, took 
up arms in his defense, but Caius abstained as far as possible from all 
violence. He perished in a general massacre, ordered by Opimius, B. 
(J. 121. 

3. Pontus, south of the Black Sea, from which it took its name, was 
one of the kingdoms tliat hail been formed from the fragments of the 
old Persian Empire. When the "Province of Asia" was organized, 
Pontus, under its king, Mithridates the Great, became the next neigh- 
bor of Rome. Mithridates was an ambitious and able prince, who 
combined the qualities of a barbarian chief and a European statesman 
in remarkable proportions. He spoke Greek with fluency, and was 
equally familiar with the Asiatic dialects of the tribes among which he 
had passed iiis wandering and adventurous life. By means of spies he 
was a keen observer of all that was going on in Rome; and, encouraged 
by the corruption of the ruling classes, and the dangers arising from 
slaves and allies, he hoped to make himself undisputed sovereign of 
the East. • He h-ad already annexed the Euxine coast as far as the 
Crimea, and, "with the help of pirates from the Mediterranean, formed 
a fleet which gave him coniplete command of the Black Sea." 

"Wlien the news of the Social War reached Mithridates, he thcaight 
it ncedle'<s to temporize longer, and he stretched out his hand to seize 
the prize of the dominion of the East. . . . He called under arms the 
whole force of which he could dispose; frightened rumor spoke of it as 
amounting to oilO.OOO men. His Corsair fleets jioured down through the 
Dardanelles into the Archipelago; and so detested had the Romaii gov- 
ernors made themselves by their extortion and injuslire, that not only 
the islands, but the provinces on the continent, Ionia, Lydia, and Caria, 
rose in revolt. The rebellion was preconcerted and .simultaneous. The 
Roman residents, merchants, bankers, farmers of the taxes, they and 
all their families, were set upon and murdered; 1.50,000 men, women, and 
children were said to have been destroyed in a single day. If we divide 
by ten, as it is safe to do in historical round numbers, still beyond 
doubt the signal had been given in an appalling massacre to abolish 
out of Asia the Roman name and power. Swift as a thunderbolt, Mith- 
ridates himself cro"?sed the Bosphorus, and the next news that reached 
Rome was that northern Greece had risen also and was throwing itself 
into the arms of its deliverers."— i?';-07trfe'.s '^Cce.aar.'''' 

The victories of .Sulla deprived the Pontic prince of all his conquests, 
but left him in possession of his hereditary kingdom. The second Mith- 
ridatic War began B. C. 74, and continued ten years, ending witla a com- 
plete triumph of the Romans under Pompey (§228). 

"The barbarian king who had so long defied the Roman power, was 
beaten down at last, and fled across the Black Sea to Kertch, where his 
sons turned auainst him. He was sixty-eight years old, and could not 
wait till the wheel siiould make another turn." "He had foi'tifled him- 
self against poison until it would no longer take effect; he therefore, 
"sought a surer death, and fell, like Saul, by the .sword of a slave. 
Rome had put out her real strength, and at oiice, as before, all opposi- 
tion went down before her. Asia was completely conquered up to the 
line of the Euphrates. The Black Sea was held securely by a Roman 
fleet."— ift/d. 

4. The Pontiffs (g 188), who had the care of the calendar, had abused 
their high otflce for political purposes, lengthening the term of a favor- 
ite consul, or bringing to an abrupt end the power of one who was 
thwarting their wishes. In this way the civil year had become three 
mouths in advance of the real coui'se of the seasons; solstices were ia 



NOTES. 139 

spring and autumn; and equinoxes, in summer and winter: harvest- 
festivals tooJi place at the first budillng of the leaf; and those of the 
late vintage, in the midsummer lieat. Caesar used his arbitrary power 
as Pontifex Maxiinus with better effect and higher motives than his pre- 
decessors had done; he added ninety days to the current year, and f)i'- 
dained that three out of four of all succeeding years should contain ;i(io 
days, the fourth having 3()(). He abolished the use of the lunar calcula- 
tions, which had caused a part of the confusion, and regulated the civil 
year entirely by the sun. He made the twelve months consist of 30 and 
31 days alternately— a more convenient division than the later one, now 
in use, which was adopted for the purpose of flattering Augustus (i:2-Ili 
by making the month known by his name of equaf length with' the 
preceding one, which was named from the great Julius. A day was 
accordingly taken from February and a<lded to Aiigiixt; then, to avoid 
having three long months in successiim, Sci)tember and November were 
shortened, and October and December lengthened. 

Caesar had planned his reformation of the calendar at Alexandria with 
the aid of Sosigenes, the astronomer. The civil year was now too long 
by 11 minutes and 14 seconds. It was set right in A. I). 1582, by Pope 
Gregory XIII.— also Pontifex Maximus at Rome— who suppressed ten 
days of that year, and whose reformed calendar is now used in every 
Christian country excepting Russia. 

5. Marcus TuUius Cicero was born B. C. 106, at Arpinum, seventy 
miles south-east of Rome. His father is described as a country gentle- 
man in good circumstances, given to literature, residing habitually at 
his estate on the Liris, and paying occasional visits to the capital. 
The boy Marcus, by his keen delight in i)oetry and eloquence, and by 
his severe and constant study, proved those rare talents which made 
him afterwards the most illustrious of Roman oratois. His education 
was directed b.y Archias, the Greek poet, and he became deeply versed 
in Hellenic literature and philosophy. 

He first appeared as an advocate in the Forum— where Roman courts 
of law were held— at 25 years of age; but his health was so delicate, 
that he resolved to devote two years to foreign travel, perfecting himself 
meanwhile in his favorite studies at Athens and Rhodes. 

The fame of Cicero was established once for all, by his prosecution 
of Verres, Roman governor of Sicily, for his cruelty "and rapacity. It 
was a test case, for the extortions of Roman officials were beginning to 
be felt as a national disgrace. "Verres in three years had accumulated 
nearly four millions of our money— a sum of much greater value then 
than now— of which he expected to spend two thirds in buying a favor- 
able decision from the court which ought to condemn him, snd the 
remaining third would still support him in luxury all his days. The 
scathing eloquence of Cicero, supported as it was by evidence which he 
had personally collected in Sicily, overturned the governor's c;ilcula- 
tions, and, dropping his defense in despair, Verres fled to Marseilles. 

Of Cicero's other orations, the most celebrated are those against Cati- 
line (^228), and the fourteen Philippics (so called from the speeches of 
Demosthenes against Philip of Macedon, '■^, 140) which he pronounced 
against Antony. Of almost greater value, for the light they throw on 
the life of his time, are the SCO letters, still existing (see note 7, Ch. XII, 
B. II), in which, Avith the confidence of friendship, he poured forth his 
views of men and things. The only faults of Cicero were the vanity 
which led him to imagine that the affairs of the Roman world revolved 
about himself, and a lack of manly sincerity, which, in the contest be- 
tween r;esar and Pomiiey, kept him in a state of painful vacillation. 
"The gratitude of mankind for his literary excellence, will," it has been 
truly said, "forever preserve his memory from too harsh a judgment." 

His death occurred in the woods of his own beautiful villa at FormiEe, 
near Gaeta, while his servants were carrying him toward the sea, in a 
last hope that he might escape. " To his slaves he had always been the 
gentlest of masters. They would have given their lives in his defense if 
he would have allowed them; but he bade them set the litter down and 
save themselves. He thrust his head out between the curtains, and it 
was instantly struck oflf." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 








T 



Gladiatorial Combats. 

HE history of Imperial Rome will be best under- 
stood if divided into four periods: 

I. Nominal Power of the Senate. B. C. 31- 
A. D. 192. 
II. Tyranny of the Soldiers. A. D. 193-284. 

III. Absolute Imperialism. A. D. 284-395. 

IV. Eastern and Western Empires Divided. A. D. 
395-476. 

24i». Cffisar Octavianus^ is best known to history by his 
new title, Augus'tus. He carefully avoided all kingly 
show and parade, though he exercised more than kingly 
power : living in his private house on the Palatine hill, 
and walking the streets unattended, like any other citizen. 
The forms of the republic were still kept up. The people 
elected consuls, tribunes, etc., every year, but they always 
chose the persons proposed by Augustus; and at length 
these offices were, one by one, granted to him for life. 
The multitude were kept in good humor by a continual 
succession of games, and by liberal supplies of corn, wine, 
and oil, dealt out by the Imperator. The Senate passed 
all the laws which he introduced, and was treated in return 
with perfect respect. 
(140) 



BIRTH OF CHRIST. 141 

242. Augustus boasted that he "found Rome of brick, 
and left it of marble." Commerce and all the industries 
flourished ; the peace of the city was never broken during 
his reign; and so many great writers enjoyed his protec- 

i tion, that the brightest period of every nation's literature is 
} called, in allusion to them, its "Augustan Age." Among 
I them were Vir'gil, Hor'ace, Ov'id, and other poets, and 
Liv'y, the first Roman historian. 

243. But the chief distinction of the age was little 
dreamed of by the brilliant circles at Rome. In the 
twenty-seventh year of Octavian's reign, the long promised 
Messi'ah was born at Bethlehem, in Judaea. Over His 
cross, thirty-three years later, men read the announcement, 
"This is the King of the Jews," written in Hebrew, and 

I Greek, and Latin: perhaps a hint of what was meant by 
the "fullness of times," when the three highest human 
types, thus far, had reached their perfection in Hebrew 
religion, Greek intelligence, and Roman law; and the 
world was waiting for the spiritual kingdom which was to 

' outlast the glories of imperial Rome. 

244. The Roman Empire now embraced the whole Med- 
iterranean, with its coasts and islands, from Sahara to 
the Rhine, Danube, and Euxine, and from the Atlantic to 
the Euphrates. Its 27 provinces were divided by Augustus 
between himself and the Senate. Those which were 
securely at peace were called Senatorial Provinces, and 
governed by proconsuls; those which needed the presence 
of an army were Imperial Provinces, managed by the 

; emperor or his legates. The standing army, which kept 
I this vast dominion in awe, consisted of 25 legions; each 
: legion, in horse, foot, and artillery, numbered nearly 7,000 
t men. Beside these, the provinces furnished an equal 
; number of auxiliary troops, so that the emperor had at 
his command not fewer than 350,000 soldiers. These do 
not include the "City Cohorts," an armed police, who 



142 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

kept order in Rome, nor the 10,000 Praetorian Guards, 
who protected the person of the emperor. 

245. The only miHtary disaster of Augustus' reign was 
the destruction of three legions in Germany, putting an 

end to Roman conquests north of the Rhine. 

The victor was Her'man" — the Romans called 
him Arniin'ius — the first great champion of German inde- 
pendence. Modern Germany has lately honored him by a 
colossal statue on the site of his great victory. 

246. Augustus died, A. D. 14, and the Senate conferred 
his titles upon his adopted son, Tibe'rius. The army would 
gladly have crowned German'icus, its favorite general, the 
nephew and adopted son of Tiberius, but Germanicus re- 1| 
fused the honor. The new emperor never forgave him 
for being more beloved than himself: he recalled him 
from German}', when he was on the point of reconquering 

it, and sent him to the East, where he was probably poi- 
soned by order of the emperor. Tiberius was suspicious 
of all abler and better men than himself; but as he could 
not govern alone, he raised a low-lived man named Seja'nus 
to the post of praetorian prefect, and committed the empire 
to his disposal. 

247. The new laws of Tiberius destroyed the last remains 
of popular government in Rome. He assumed the right to 
put any person to death without trial ; and placed on the 
list of capital crimes words or even thoughts unfavorable 
to himself. .\t length he detected Sejanus in a plot against 
his life, and, with the just execution of that minister, he 
lost the only man whom he ever trusted. Thenceforth the 
best and noblest persons in Rome fell victims of his jeal- 
ousy; and the world breathed more freely when it heard 
of the sudden death of Tiberius, A. D. 37. 

248. Army and people gladly united in putting the purple 
robe upon Caius Caesar, the only surviving son of Ger- 
manicus. In his childhood he had been the pet of his 



THE LAST OF THE CyESAKS. 143 

father's soldiers, and, from the Httle miHtary boots which 
he wore to please them, he acquired the nickname Calig'ula, 
which has always clung to him. He began well, but, soon 
spoiled by too much power and wealth, he became the 
maddest of tyrants. He demanded to be worshiped as a 
god; he rejoiced in the death-agonies of victims slain for 
his amusement, and wished that all the Roman people had 
only one head, that he might chop it off at a single blow ! 

249. After four years, Caius was murdered by his guards, 
and his uncle Clau'dius, a weak old man, became emperor. 
His reign is chiefly marked by the evil deeds 

of his wives, Mes'sali'na and Ag'rippi'na. The ' ' ' '*'~^''' 
latter persuaded him to disinherit his own son, and name 
hers by a former marriage as his heir; then poisoned him, 
to make way for the accession of Ne'ro. 

250. Nero's tutor was Sen'eca,^ a wise and upright phi- 
losopher ; but as soon as the new C^sar was old enough 
to assume power for himself, he proved a wicked tyrant. 
He murdered his mother, his wife, and the best of his 
ministers and generals. He is said to have ordered the 
kindling of a fire which destroyed two thirds of 

Rome; but he charged it upon the Christians, ' ' ""' 

multitudes of whom were burnt to death as a punishment. 
To do him justice, he rebuilt Rome on a greatly improved 
plan, both for health and safety. Instead of narrow, 

I crooked streets, there were ample thoroughfares; and every 

' house had an abundant supply of water. 

j 251. At length Roman patience was exhausted by the 
j! vanity and tyranny of Nero ; and Galba was chosen to 
I succeed him. Knowing that resistance would 
! be vain, Nero killed himself, and with him 
\ ended the descendants — even by adoption — of the great 
I Julius, though the names of Casar and Augustus were 
[ retained as titles by all succeeding emperors. After three 
short reigns, each ended by violence, the general, Vespa'- 



144 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

sian, assumed the purple robe of Augustus, and soon 
restored order and prosperity to the Empire. Rome was 
adorned by the Colise'um and the Temple of Peace; 
Britain submitted to Roman rule; and the Jewish War of 
Independence was ended by the capture and destruction 
of Jerusalem. 

252. Vespasian was succeeded by his son Ti'tus, the 
conqueror of Jerusalem.'' He was a brave and able soldier; 
but his earlier years had been so stained by cruelty and 
excesses that the people feared they were to have another 
Nero for their ruler. On the death of his father, how- 
ever, Titus sent away all his bad associates, and set him- 
self diligently to the duties of his high place. During his 
short reign of little more than two years, he did all that 
wise liberality could do to repair the calamities of fire, pes- 
tilence, and earthquake, which afflicted Rome. 
' ^^ ' It was at this time that Herculaneum and Pom- 
peii, beautiful Campanian towns, were suddenly destroyed 
by an eruption of Vesuvius. Domi'tian, a brother of Titus, 
was the next emperor. He proved himself a morose and 
cruel tyrant, and was murdered by his guards, A. D. 96. 

253- Five good emperors, — Ner'va, Tra'jan,^ Ha'drian, 
and the two An'tonines, — followed in turn. Trajan (A. D. 
98-117) was not only a great general, but a wise, just, 
and painstaking ruler. He carefully studied all causes 
which were brought before him ; wrote letters to the pro- 
vincial governors to aid them in difficult cases ; lightened 
the taxes, and yet managed so well as to have means for 
many useful works. The emperors had hitherto respected 
the dying advice of Augustus, to regard the Rhine, the 
Danube, and the Euphrates (^244) as the limits of their 
dominion. Trajan, however, conquered Dacia, Armenia, 
Assyria, and Mesopotamia. The first continued to be a 
Roman province, guarded by colonies and forts; but the 
Asiatic conquests were surrendered by Hadrian. 



REIGN OF MARCUS AURELIUS. 145 

254. During a peaceful reign of 20 years, Hadrian vis- 
ited every part of his great empire, wliich is said to have 
been better governed at this period than ever before or 
since. Peace and prosperity continued, how- 
ever, during the 23 years which followed, un- 
der T. Aure'lius Antoni'nus, the first emperor who especially 
protected the Christians. Mar'cus Aure'lius,** the adopted 
son and successor of Antoninus, was one of the best char- 
acters whom History has portrayed ; but his reign was 
marked by many calamities. Parthians on the East, and 
Germans on the West, overran the Empire, while 43 years 
of peace had unfitted the legions for the toils of war. 
The only exception to the justice and gentleness of the 
emperor was his persecution of the Christians. This was 
owing to the bigoted Stoics who were his chief advisers, 
and who could not bear to see their boasted virtues sur- 
passed by even the humblest disciples of Chri.st. The 
venerable bishop, Pol'ycarp, a friend and disciple of St. 
John, suffered a martyr's death at Smyrna, A. D. 167; 
and ten years later the churches of Vienne and Lyons, 
in France, were subjected to frightful massacres. Aurelius 
labored unceasingly, and often with success, to repel the 
invaders of his empire, and it was during a war with 
a German tribe that he died at Vienna, on the Danube, 
A. D. 180. 

.255. His only son, Com'modus, was already associate- 
emperor, at the age of 17. He was one of the worst of 
the tyrants; and, under his weak and dissolute reign, the 
very foundations of order and peace seemed broken up. 
Soldiers obeyed no one, but plundered and ravaged Roman 
territories at their pleasure, while citizens lived in lazy 
luxury, unmindful of the poverty which was creeping over 
the world. 

Trace, upon Map 5, the boundaries of the Roman Empire under 
Augustus. Under Trajan. Read Merivale and Josephus. 
Hist. — 10. 



146 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



NOTES. 

1. Caius Octavius, who afterwards became, by adoption, C. Julius 
Ca3sar Octaviauus, was born September 2o, B. C. 68. Even in cliildliood 
bis beauty and talents attracted attention; and his grand-uncle, the 
great Julius, having no son of his own, carefully watched over his ed- 
ucation, with a view of making the promising boy his heir. The pride 
and ambition of Octavius were, doubtless, stiniulated by the distinctions 
that were heaped upon him; but the sudden and rapid changes whicli 
he witnessed in public aJKiirs also developed a prudence far lieyond his 
years. He was scarcely nineteen when he heard, at Apolloiiia, in II- 
iyricum, of the murder of his great-uncle. The soldiers inrmediately 
tlrrouged about him, clamoring to be led into Italy and to avenge the 
death of their Imperator. Octavian quieted them, and journeyed to 
Rome, as a private person, to claim, in the courts, the property which 
Ceesar had be(ineatlied him. Thougli he made no secret of his intention 
to avenge liis uncle's deatli, he was careful at this time to commit no of- 
fense against llie laws. His position was most ditticult, for he had to 
defend iiimself, not only against the powerful faction that had destroyed 
the Dictator, but against some of Ctesar's friends, who were ambitious 
to succeed him in absolute power. Mark Antony refused to give up the 
money and papers of Cresar, wliicli were in his possession. Octavian 
managed, liowever, with wonderful tact, to gain the favor of the senate 
and judges, as he had alreadv that of the soldiers and people. Even 
Cicero, who had opposed the elder Ciesar, now declared tliat the younger 
was the only man who could save the republic. Antony was pronounced 
a public enemy, and the conduct of the war against l)im was intrusted 
to Octavian, together with the two consuls. But Octavian, with Iiis 
usual coolness, now perceived that the senate was losing power, and 
would not long be able to resist the combined armies of Lepidus and 
Antony. He listened, therefore, to the mediation of Lepidus — a trusted 
olflcerof the elder Csesar, and once his colleague in tlie consulship— and, 
in a conference with him and Antony at Bologna, became a member of 
the triumvirate (ii2'58). The most disgraceful feature of this agreement 
was the proscription, in which each of the partners sacrificed some of 
liis nearest friends to tlie vengeance of the other two. Lepidus wrote 
the name of liis own brother in the fatal list; and Octavian consented 
to the death of Cicero— tile most illustrious survivor of the great age 
of the republic -to satisfy Antony's implacable hatred. Of the foreign 
provinces of Rome, it was agreed that Antony should govern Gaul; 
Leiiidus, Spain; and Octavian, Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa. The tri- 
umvirate was to last five years, and it was renewed for anotlier equal 
period, in B. C. 37, in spite of the jealousies and mutual suspicions which 
constantly tlireatened to separate the allies. In B. C. 36, Lepidus, tired 
of being treated as a subject by liis ambitious partners, made an effort 
to gain Sicily for Iiimself and to resume an equal place in the trium- 
virate. But his twenty legions, won liy the popularity of Octavian, 
melted away so fast that he was compelled to throw himself at the feet 
of liis rival ami beg for his life. Octavian granted him this, together 
with the enjoymiMit of his large fortune and the dignity of chief pontiff, 
but he was deprived of all military command. 

The victory of Ciesar at Actium restored peace to the Roman world, 
and the Gates of Janus, between the Quirinal and the Palatine Mounts- 
through which armies always passed in going to war — were closed for 
the first time in many years. 

With all the splendor of his public career, Augustus, as we must now 
call him, had many misfortunes In his family. His third wife, Livia— 
though she enjoyed the love and confidence of her husband to the end 
of his life— was an unscrupulous plotter, who procured the death of his 
two grandsons in order to make way for her own son by a former mar- 
riage, the gloomy and merciless Tiberius. Augustus did, in fact, adopt 
Tiberitis as his heir, and even associated him in the government during his 
own life-time. The next year, A. D. II, Tiberius set out for a campaign 
in Illyricum, and the aged emperor accompanied him as far as Naples. 
Augustus was taken ill on his return, and died at Nola, on the 29tli of 
August, thvj month that had been specially named for him (see p. 139). 
Livia kept the event secret until Tiberius could return to Nola, where 
he was received with acclamations, as emperor and "Augustus." 



NOTES. 147 

2. "Arminius was familiar with tlie Roman language and civiliza- 
tion; ho had served in tlu> Honian armies; he had been admitted to 
Roman citizenship, and raised to the rank of the equestrian order. It 
was part of tlie subtile ))olii-.v of Rome to confer rank and privileges 
on the youth of the leading families in tlie nations which she wished 
to enslave. Among other young German chieftains, Arminius and his 
brother, who were the heads of tiie noblest house in the tribe of the 
Cherusci, had been selected as flt objects for the exercise of this insidi- 
ous system. Roman refinements and dignities succeeded in denational- 
izing" the brother, who assumed the Roman name of Flavins, and ad- 
hered to Rome throughout all her wars against his country. Arminius 
remained unbought by honors or wealth, uncorrupted by reflnement or 
luxury. 

"Vast and admirably organized as the fabric of Roman power ap- 
peared on the frontiers and' in the provinces, there was rottenness at 
the core. . . . Slaves, the chance sweepings of every conquered coun- 
try, shoals of Africans, Sardinians, Asiatics, Illyrians, and others made 
up the bulk of the population of the Italian penin.sula. The foulest 
profligacy f)f manners was general in all ranks. . . . Conscious of 
being too debased for self-government, the nation had submitted itself 
to the absolute authority of Auiiustus. With bitter indignation must the 
German chieftain have Ijcheld all this, and contrasted it with the rough 
worth of his own countrymen: their bravery, their tidelity to their 
word, their manly independence of spirit, their love of their national 
free institutions, and their loathing of every pollution and meanness. 

"Arminius found among the other German chiefs many who sym- 
pathized with him in his indignation at their country's abasement, 
and many whom private wrongs had stung still more deeply. . . . 
Seeing that the infatuation of Varus was complete, he secretly directed 
the tribes between the Weser and the Ems to take up arms in open 
revolt against the Romans. This was represented to Varus as an oc- 
casion wliich required his prompt attendance at the spot; but he was 
kept in studied ignorance of its being part of a concerted national ris- 
ing. . . . He therefore set his army in motion and marched eastward 
in a line parallel to the course of the Lippe. . . . For some distance 
Varus was allowed to move on, only harassed by slight skirmishes, but 
struggling with difflculty through tlie broken ground, the toil and dis- 
tress of his men being aggravated by heavy torrents of rain, which 
burst upon the devoted legions, as if the angry gods of Germany were 
pouring out the vials of their wrath upon the invaders. After some 
little time tlieir van approached a ridge of higli, woody ground, which is 
one of the offshoots of the great Hercynian forest, and is situated be- 
tween the modern villages of Driburg and Bielefeld. Arminius had 
caused barricades of hewn trees to be formed here, so as to add to 
the natural difiiculties of the passage. Fatigue and discouragement 
now began to betray themselves in the Roman ranks. Their line be- 
came less steady; baggage-wagons were abandoned from the impos- 
sibility of forcing them along; and, as this happened, many soldiers 
left their ranks, and crowded round the wagons to secure the most val- 
uable portions of their property ; each was busy about his own aflairs, 
and purposely slow in hearing the word of command from his officers. 
Arminius now gave the signaffor a general attack. The fierce shouts of 
the Germans pealed through the gloom of the forests, and in thronging 
multitudes they assailed the flanks of the invaders, pouring in clouds 
of darts on the encumltered legionaries, as they struggled up the glens 
or floundered in the morasses, and watching every opportunity of 
charging through the intervals of the disjointed column, and tso cutting 
off the communication between its several brigades. . . . Unahle to 
keep together, or force their way across the woods and swamps, the 
horsemen were overpowered in detail, and slaughtered to the last man. 
The Roman infantry still held together, but more through the instinct 
of discipline and bn'ivery than from any hope of success or escape. . . . 
The Roman host, wiiieh, on the yester morning had marched forth in 
such pride and might, now broken up into confused fragments, either fell 
fighting beneath the overpowering numbers of the enemy, or perished 
in the swamps and woods in unavailing efforts at flight. P'ew, very 
few, ever saw again the left bank of the Rhine. Never was victory 
more decisive, never was the liberation of an oppressed people more 
instantaneous and complete. Throughout Germany the Roman garri- 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



sons were assailed antl cut off; and, within a few weeks after Varus had 
fallen, the German soil was treed from the foot of an invader."— A'/;- E. 
Creasy, " Fifteen Decisive Battlen of the WorlcV' 

From this decisive point the Rliine continued to be the frontier be- 
tween Rome and the Germans, until, five centuries later, the tide of 
conquest turned in the other direction, and tlie Teutonic races divided 
the empire into the kingdoms of modern Europe. 

3. Seneca, the son of a Roman knight, was born at Cordova, in Spain, 
a few years before the birth of Christ. In the reign of Tiberius he 
gained "distinction by pleading causes in the courts; liis eloquence drew 
upon him the hatred of Caligula, who detested excellence of every kind, 
and who would have ordered the orator to instant execution, but that 
some one pointed to the consuniijtive frame of Seneca and whispered 
that it " was useless to extinguisli a waning lamp." Among the first acts 
of Claudius was the banishment of the philosopher to Corsica; but, after 
eight years, he was recalled by Agripplna, and became the tutor of her 
son. The worst stains on Seneca's character came from his consent to 
some, at least, of Nero's crimes. His philosophy was high and pure, 
but his life was governed by an excessive love of wealth. He " declaimed 
in praise of poverty with two millions sterling out at usury, and cele- 
brated the divine beauty of virtue with the same pen which had writ- 
ten a defense of the nrurder of a mother by a .son." 

But Seneca's weak compliance failed of its desired end. His unspok- 
en condemnation, of which Nero could not but be conscious, was as 
irksome as open remonstrance would have been. Seneca was accused 
of having part in a conspiracy against the emperor, and by Nero's or- 
der he put an end to his own life by opening his veins. 

4. The Asmoneean Dynasty (? 171 and note) had been succeeded, B. 
C. 37, by tliat of the Herods, who were Edomites by descent. Herod 
the Great, the first of these kings, was a man of remarkable ability, but 
of cruel and ungoverned passions. It was he that ordered the murder 
of all the infants in Bethlehem, with the vain hope that the Savior of 
the world might porisli among them. His own death occurred the same 
year. His son, Arcliclaus, tbrfeited his kingdom by many crimes, A. D. 
ii; and with a short interval, A. D. Jl-44, under Herod Agrippa I. (see 
Acts xii), Judfea remained subject to Roman procurators or governors, 
under the Imperial Legate of Syria. It was under Pontius Pilate, the 
sixth of these governors, that Christ was crucified. The series of of- 
ficials that followed Agrippa I. were, if possible, more criminally cor- 
rupt than their jiredecessors. " All the bonds of social order were dis- 
solved; no property was secure; assassins alone prospered, and the pro- 
curators went shares with tliem in the ))roflts." 

At last, in .\. 1>. (iii, Gessius Florus plundered the treasures of the 
temple, gave up Jerusalem to open robbery, and crucified a number of 
its inhabitants. Revolt could no longer be delayed; the Roman garri- 
son in the Castle of Antonia were put to the sword; the Syrian Legate, 
after a short siege of Jerusalem, was compelled to withdraw; and his 
retreat was changed into fliglit by a fierce attack near Bethhoron. Nero 
intrusted the suppression of the Jewish revolt to his best and ablest 
general, Vespasian, who, within a year, had reduced the whole country, 
excepting Jerusalem and one or two other fortresses. But the death of 
Nero and the rivalry of the generals for the crown suspended the war 
for two yeai's. No sooner was Vespasian proclaimed emperor than he 
charged his son Titus with the completion of the work which he had 
begun. Jerusalem itself was divided between two parties. John of 
Gischala, the GaliUean leader of the "Zealots" holding the temple and 
the height of Mt. Moriah; while the guerrilla captain, Simon Bar Giora, 
occupied Mt. Zion and the Upper City. But when, in the spring of 
A. D. 70, Titus, with his legions, had encamped upon the heights to the 
northward, and had taken the Lower City, the two leaders found it 
necessary to forget their differences and strain every nerve for tbe com- 
mon defense. Finding that the two heights could not be carried by as- 
sault, Titus surrounded the whole city with a strong wall, and resolved 
to reduce it by famine. Rather than submit, mothers are said to have 
devoured their own children; and still the daily sacrifice went on in the 
temple. At length, Aug. 10, a firebrand fiung by a Roman soldier, set 
fire to the temple, and, after a frightful slaughter, Mt. Moriah was 



NOTES. 149 

abandoned, its surviving defenders cutting tlaeir way across the bridgp 
to Mt. Zion. The garrison of tlie Upper City, meanwliile, was so re- 
duced by famine, tliat when, on the 7tli of September, tlie final assault 
was made, there was no power to resist. Multitudes were slain; the 
rest were sold ofT as slaves, and divided among offlcers and soldiers as 
booty. Titus carried away the two leaders, and TOO of their brave com- 
rades to adorn his triumph at Rome, together with the seven-branched 
candlestick and other golden spoils of the temple. Representations of 
these may still be seen at Rome, upon the "Arch of Titus," which com- 
memorated this victory. 

Even the fall of the Holy City did not wholly break the spirit of 
the Jews, for the fortress of Masada, on the Dead Sea, remained in the 
hands of the Zealots. With its capture, A. D. 73, tlie last spark of re- 
sistance died out. 

5. M. Ulpius Trajanus was born near Seville, in Spain, A. D. 52, be- 
ing the first Roman emperor, though by no means the last, who was 
not a native of Italy. He was commanding the Roman forces in Ger- 
many, liaving his head-quarters in Cologne, when he was adopted by 
the Emperor Nerva, as his heir; and, the next year, A. D. 98, became 
emperor. Trajan had the hardy, simple, and industrious habits of the 
earlier Romans; as a warrior, he shared the hardships of the camp and 
the march, and was both loved and reverenced by his soldiers. 

He appointed the younger Pliny, A. D. 103, to be governor of Bithynia; 
and Pliny's letter asking the eni|3eror's direction concerning the Chris- 
tians in his proNince, is the first mention of the new rcligmn in profane 
literature. Trajan's reply shows him more just and nurciful than his 
lieutenant; though any proved disrespect to the gods of Rome is to be 
punished, informers are not to be encouraged, and slight concessions on 
tlie part of the accused are to be accepted as proof of repentance. 

The so-called Column of Trajan at Rome is supposed to be a memo- 
rial of this emperor's victories beyond the Danube. Remains of the 
bridge by which he crossed that river are still visible at Szernecz; and 
both the name and the prevailing language of the new kingdom of 
Roumania are interesting results of Trojan's conquest and settlements. 

The emperor was at Antioch at the time of the great earthquake, 
A. D. 115, which destroyed many buildings and multitudes of lives. It 
is uncertain whether his interview with Ignatius, the saintly bishop of 
Antioch, took place at this visit or earlier. To stay the persecutions of 
his flock, the bishop freely offered himself as a martyr; and, after a long 
and toilsome journej', he was indeed thrown to the wild beasts in the 
Coliseum at Rome. It is hard to reconcile the usual justice of Trajan 
with this iniquitous sentence. The emperor died A. D. 117, in Cilicia, 
having reigned 19 years and 6 months. 

6. In the first book of his "Meditations" M. Aurelius thanks the 
gods for " good grandfathers, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, 
good associates, good kinsmen and friends, nearly every thing good." 
At the age of eleven, he assumed the plain, coarse dress of a philoso- 
pher, and even injured his health by hard study and scanty food. As 
he grew up he gained the serenity of the Stoics, without their harsh- 
ness; and, amidst all the stern and absorbing duties of his imperial sta- 
tion, found time to "live according to nature and reason." The weight- 
iest of his maxims is this: " l.ove mankind ; follow God." How far 
Aurelius was guilty of the persecutions of the Christians, it is impossi- 
ble to tell; the records of his reign are scanty; and many things were 
done in the emperor's name of wliich he did not even know. The pol- 
icy of the government toward Christians had been fixed by Trajan and 
Hadrian. Still, there is reason to fear that some persecuting edicts were 
issued by Aurelius himself. He know of the Christians only from their 
resistance to the Roman law, which declared all religions equal in their 
right to be, only requiring divine honors to the emperor, which the 
Christians, of course, were unable to render. The story of the "Thunder- 
ing Legion" belongs to this reign. During the war against the Quadi, 
the Roman army was near perishing by thirst, when a sudden storm 
drenched it with rain, while discomfiting its enemies with fire and Jiail. 
The great victory which followed was ascribed — one report says by the 
emperor himselt^— to the prayers of the Christian soldiers who made up 
a greater part of the legion above mentioned. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ROMAN KMI'IKE. — CONTINUED. 




HERE followed a dis- 
graceful time when the 
Praetorian (luards set 
up and put down em- 
perors at their will, 
even once selling the crown 
at public auction ! The le- 
gions on the borders (§ 244) 
thought they had a still better 
right to dictate ; and three 
rival generals were at once 
proposed as masters of the 
Roman world. S e p t i m ' i u s 
Seve'rus was the successful 
^v-^""^ ^T--^ ~-^s^__^_'-_ candidate; and he proved one 

Roman Lady and Servant. ^f ^]^q ablest of the CmperOrS. 

In a war with the Parthians, he took their capital, Ctes'- 
iphon, by storm, and added, not only Mesopotamia, but 
a large tract east of the Tigris, to the dominions of 
Rome. He replaced the old Prretorians with 40,000 
troops chosen from the legions, and made their chief, 
the prcetorian prrefect, the most powerful person in the 
world, next to the emperor. Severus made war, in per- 
son, against the Caledonians, in the north-western ex- 
tremity of his empire, and died at York, the Roman 
capital of Britain, A. D. 211. 

257. His two sons reigned together for a year, but 
Car'acal'la, the elder, then murdered his brother, and, 
(150) 



ALEXANDER SEVER US. 151 

goaded by a guilty conscience, made the whole world 
suffer five years from his agonies of remorse. He put 
to death 20,000 persons on the pretext that they were his 
brother " Ge'ta's friends." The only good act recorded 
of this wretched prince is the gift of full Roman citizen- 
ship to all the inhabitants of the Empire. Very likely this 
was done only to simplify his tax-rolls; but it had the im- 
portant effect of making the protection of Roman law the 
equal right of every person. 

258. Macri'nus, the murderer and successor of Caracalla, 
was himself defeated and slain by the armies of Elagab'alus, 
a Syrian boy of fourteen years, whom the armies in the 
East had been bribed to acknowledge as their emperor. 
In his infancy he had been made a priest of the Sun; 
and the worship of 3a'al was now placed at Rome above 
that of Jupiter himself. Old Roman worship, however 
mistaken in its objects, had at least been decorous and 
solemn. Elagabalus added to the disgust inspired by his 
gluttony and drunkenness, by profaning every thing that 

' the Romans held sacred. At last he was murdered by 
the praetorians, A. D. 222. 

259. His cousin, Alexander Severus, a very different 
character, was gladly acknowledged by both army and 
Senate as their chief. His blameless life and noble aims 
promised happiness to the Empire. Good men were called 
to the highest offices, the public money was honestly spent, 
and the Senate was respected as in the days of Augustus. 

j A great revolution had taken place in Asia. The Parthian 
{ Empire (§§169, 232) was now overthrown by the new 
Persian monarchy of the Sassan'id?e, who aimed to govern 
all the provinces of Darius the Great (§ 51). Alexander 
met the new Artaxerxes and defeated him on a plain 
east of the Euphrates. Then, returning to the West, he 
set out for a campaign in Ciermany, but was slain in a 
mutiny of his troops, A. D. 235. 



152 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

260. It is needless to name all the puppet-chiefs who 
were set up in turn by the soldiers — now a Thracian 
peasant, now an African proconsul, now a child of twelve 
years — each one sure to be deposed and slain as soon as 
the whim or resentment of his masters called for a change. 

Under De'cius,^ the second great persecution 

A. D. 249-251. . . T 1 I • 1 

of Christians took place ; and the bishops of 
Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem were among the martyrs. 
Decius fell in battle with the Goths — one of the most 
powerful German tribes — who were ravaging the country 
south of the Danube. 

261. Vale'rian (A. D. 254-260), the bravest and ablest 
of this series of emperors, had to struggle against count- 
less hordes of barbarians from the north, and against 
the rising power of Persia in the east (§258). At last 
he was made prisoner by Sa'por, the Persian king, in a 
great battle near the Euphrates, and spent the rest of 
his days in a cruel captivity at the Persian court. Various 
fragments of the Roman Empire set up independent gov- 
ernments under many chiefs, known in general as the 
"Thirty Tyrants." 

262. Aurelian^ (A. D. 270-275) reunited the Roman 
dominions, defeated the pretenders to sovereignty within, 
and the hostile barbarians beyond, its limits; and ex- 
tended one victorious empire again from the Atlantic to 
the Euphrates. Several of his successors were wise and 
good men; but their reigns were short and usually ended 
by violence, until the dangerous power of the legions was 
overthrown by Diocle'tian, A. D. 284. 

263. Period III. Perceiving that the Roman dominion 
was too large to be well governed by a single sovereign, 
Diocletian^ shared his title of Augustus with his friend Max- 
im'ian. A few years later each emperor adopted a son 
and successor, who bore the title of Ccesar during his 
adoptive father's lifetime, and was especially charged with 



k 



PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. 153 

the defense of the frontiers. Almost every province needed 
the presence of a great army, so fierce and constant were 
the attacks of barbarians. Diocletian had his capital at 
Nicomedia, in Asia Minor; Maximian, his at Milan, in 
northern Italy; while the Caesar Constan'tius fixed his 
head-quarters at York (§ 256), and the Caesar Gale'rius at 
Sirmium, on the Danube. 

264. The succession being thus regularly provided for, 
the soldiers lost their power of dictating the choice of new 
emperors. The removal of the government from Rome, 
destroyed the influence of the Senate. The emperor's 
edict had all the force of law ; and instead of veiling his 
power under simple, citizen-like manners, he now assumed 
the state of an eastern monarch, and could only be ap- 
proached with ceremonies of reverence. 

265, The religion taught by Christ and His Apostles 
had now reached every portion of the Empire ; and, in 
those times of ruin and corruption, Christians were known 
as the most orderly, industrious, and worthy members of 
any community. Nevertheless, for their refusal to worship 
the emperor's image, they were subjected to a horrible 
persecution. In 303, A. D. , Diocletian published an edict 
ordering the destruction of all their churches and sacred 
books, and the death of all persons who presumed to hold 
secret meetings for worship. The passions of envy and 
hatred were let loose, and every soil was wet with innocent 

blood. 

1 

I 266. In 305, A. D., Diocletian, weary of power, laid 
I aside his crown, and compelled Maximian to do the same. 
{ Some years of contention followed, during which the Roman 
world had at one time six masters, then four, then tAvo, 
and finally only one, who was Con'stantine', son of Con- 
stantius. This great general had always esteemed the 
virtues and protected the lives of the Christians so far as 
he was able, even in times of persecution. He was now 



154 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 

to do more. On his march into Italy it is said that he saw 
a flaming cross in the heavens, with the inscription : By 
this, conquer! He adopted the emblem as his standard, 
and soon gained two victories over Maxentius, 
' ^^^' son of Maximian, which gave him the posses- 
sion of Rome and all Italy. 

267. As soon as his power was established in the East, 
Constantine issued a circular-letter to all his subjects, ad- 
vising them to follow his example and become Christians. 
Though pagans were allowed the free exercise of their 
religion, Christianity became, in an important sense, the 
religion of the Empire. The first general Council of 
Christian bishops was convened by Constantine at Nice,'* 
in Bithynia, A. D. 325. 

268. On the ruins of old Byzantium, Constantine built a 
new capital of the world, which he called New Rome, but 
which bears in history his own name — Constantinople, 
the city of Constantine. The last trace of the republican 
forms, so carefully cherished by Augustus, had now van- 
ished ; and Constantine's court was a gorgeous assemblage 
of officials, whose ceremonious behavior rivaled the homage 
paid to Xerxes or Darius. He created three new ranks 
of nobles throughout the Empire, to whom the nobility 
of modern Europe may trace their titles. 

269. A standing army of 645,000 men was now con- 
stantly maintained (see § 244) ; but, as Roman citizens were 
no longer of the same stuff with the followers of Decius 
and Fabius, great numbers of barbarians were received into 
the pay of the emperor. Nothing could so have shown 
the weakness of Rome as thus to arm her late enemies and 
future conquerors. Besides multitudes of Franks in the 
imperial armies, 300,000 Sarmatians were received as vas- 
sals of the Empire, and settled in Pannonia, Thrace, 
Macedonia, and Italy. 



JULIAN THE APOSTATE. 155 

270. Upon the death of Constantine, A. D. 337, his 
three sons divided the empire among them and put to 
death all their relatives, excepting two cousins. Within 
a few years, Con'stans and Constantine II. 

were slain in war, and Constan'tius II., the ' ' ■'^°' 

surviving brother, reigned over the whole Roman world. 
He had a long and calamitous war with the Persians, 
who defeated the Roman armies in nine pitched battles, 
and extended their raids westward to the Mediterranean. 

271. His cousin Ju'lian was, meanwhile, commanding, 
with great ability, near the Rhine, where he gained im- 
portant victories over the Germans. Constantius, jealous 
of his fame, ordered the greater part of Julian's army to 
the East. The soldiers in Gaul mutinied at this unjust 
command, and proclaimed their beloved general Emperor. 
The Senates of Athens and Rome confirmed their choice. 
Before the two cousins could meet in arms, Constantius 
died, A. D. 361, and Julian was every-where received 
with joyful acclamations. 

272. He reduced the luxury of the court, and declared 
himself the "Servant of the Republic." But Julian was a 
pagan, chiefly, perhaps, because the kinsmen who had 
murdered all his family, called themselves Christians. He 
publicly renounced Christianity, placing himself and his 
dominions under the protection of the "immortal gods." 
After sixteen months' reign he died in war with the Per- 
sians, and his successor, Jovian, restored Christian worship 
and universal tolerance, A. D. 363. 

Trace, upon Map 5, the wars of Septimius Severus. Point out the 
four capitals of Diocletian's empire. The new capital of Constantine. 

Gibbon's "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 
pire" is the great authority from the time of the Antonines. For 
a very interesting account of the Nicene Council, read Stanley's 
"Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church." 



156 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



NOTES. 

1. Decius was a native of Pannonia, on the Upper DanuVjp, a region 
whicli afterwards gave birtli to a long series of emperors. Tlie manner 
of his elevation to imperial rank was singular. Tiie army in Mcesia 
had revolted; and Decius, who stood high in the confidence of the Em- 
peror Philip, was commissioned by him to reduce tiiem to obedience. 
On his arrival at the scene, the soldiers, feeling that their guilt was 
beyond forgiveness, thronged about liira witli drawn swords, and com- 
manded liim to choose between instant death and an imixTial crown. 
For the moment he accepted the latter, but wrote to assure Philip that 
he had only acted under compulsion, and would lay down his uncom- 
fortable dignity as soon as he could escape from his jailers. The em- 
peror, however, distrusted his loyalty, and marched with an army to 
meet him. A battle was fouglit near Verona, in which Philip was de- 
feated and slain, A. D. 249. 

The sliort reign of Decius was marked by two very different attempts 
to restore the ancient manners, and with them the ancient power, of 
Rome. It was widely felt that tlie calamities that had come upon the 
empire were due to the corruption of its people. Some of the more su- 
perstitious believed also that the gods were angry because a new religion, 
hostile to their worship, had become prevalent. So it was resolved both 
to revive the censorship (note to ^215) and to persecute the Christians. 
Valerian, afterwards emperor, a Roman of the old school, was chosen by 
the senate to be censor; but the untimely end of Decius relieved him 
from the embarrassing anil, indeed, hopeless task of restoring the or- 
der and decency of the early times to Rome. The second measure was 
only too successful, for the wicked passions of men are ready to break 
forth with or without a pretext. Beside the martyrdoms mentioned in 
the text, a terrible massacre of Christians occurred in Alexandria; and 
thousands, through fear, disowned their faith. 

2. Aurelian was of humble origin— his fatlier having been a farm- 
servant in the wild country near the Danube — and the son was indebted 
solely to his own strengtli, courage, and talents for his rapid rise in 
militarv rank. Having expelled the Goths from lUyria and Thrace, he 
received the puiolic thanks of Valerian, with tlie title of consul-elect. 
Thirteen years later, the shouts of tlie legions hailed him as emperor, 
and his short reign was crowded witli brilliant successes. The Goths, 
Vandals, and Alemanni were first vanquished by hard fighting; then 
he turned against Zenobia, Queen of the East, wlio, since the deatli of 
her liusband, Odenatus, had ruled at Palmyra over a great part of Asia 
Minor, Syria, and Egypt. The Palmyrenes were twice defeated, and 
their city was taken after a long anil brave resistance. Their queen 
was carried as a captive to Rome. Learning, on his way, that the Pal- 
myrenes had revolted and had destroyed the Roman governor and gar- 
rison, Aurelian instantly reversed his march, massacred the whole 
population of the city, and razed its buildings to the ground, giving 
orders, however, for the reconstruction of the Temple of the Sun, which 
he regarded as his own special divinity. 

Tlie whole empire east of the Adiiatic was now subject to Aurelian; 
but Britain, Gaul, and Spain were ruktl from Bordeaux by Tetncus, the 
last of a succession of "tyrants." His armies were defeated, perhai)s liy 
his own consent, at Chalons; and tlie west of Europe submitted to the 
conqueror. Aurelian celebrated his victories by such a "triumph" as 
Rome had not seen since the time of Julius Ceesar. His visit to the 
capital was still more happily marked by wise laws for the relief of tlie 
poor, and by the building of a new and strongly fortified wall around 
the whole city, which, however, was not completed until the reign of 
Probus. Aurelian was on his march against the Persians, when he was 
slain by one of his ofHcers, A. D. 275. 

3. Diocletian was the son of a Dalmatian freedman ; some accounts 
even assert that he himself had been a slave, but this is improbable. 
He held high commands in the army under Aurelian, Probus, and Cams. 
The last-named emperor died suddenly in Asia, and his son, Numerian, 
was murdered by his father-in-law, tlie pra?torian prtefect, who lioped 
to succeed liim. The soldiers, learning of the crime, set up Diocletian, 



I 



NOTES. 157 

who was captain of the body-guards, to avenge and succeed their idol- 
ized emperor. Carinas, brother of Numerian, marclied against tlie 
usurper and defeated liim in Moesia; but was himself murdered by one 
of his own officers, and liis army came over to Diocletian. A new era 
in the history of Rome was now begun. To guard against the violence 
which had destroyed so many emperors, the sovereign was surrounded 
by retinues of soldiers, and, far from making any pretense, like Augus- 
tus (^2-11), of republican simplicity, he put on all the magnificence of 
an oriental monarch. His robe was cloth of gold ; his shoes, of purple 
silk, were embroidered with jewels; a kingly diadem, such as Caesar 
could not venture to wear, encircled his brow; and lie could only be 
approached by a complicated series of ceremonies. Some said the head 
ot the Dalmatian peasant had been turned by his elevation; but, in 
fact, Diocletian hiul carefully planned all this as a necessary part of his 
new scheme of government, together with the military and political 
changes, and his succes.s might seem to have pi-oved the wisdom of his 
plan. "He found the empire weak and shattered, threatened with im- 
mediate dissolution from intestine discord and external violence. He 
left it strong and compact, at peace within, and triumphant abroad, 
stretching from the Tigris to the Nile, from the shores of Holland to 
the Euphrates." 

The worst effect of the revolution was, perhaps, in the increased bur- 
dens it imposed upon the people. To support four courts, with the 
palaces and other costly buildings which the new plan required, witli 
the increased retinues and guards, both civil and military, was more 
than the starved and exhausted empire could bear. Grea't regions of 
once fertile country had become depopulated by centuries of civil war; 
and the diminished numbers who had to support the increased bur- 
dens, endured untold miseries at every visit of the tax-gatherers. 

4. "In the close of May or beginning of June, Nicsea was approached 
by the representatives of the Christian Church from every part of the 
Eastern Empire and from a few parts of the Western also. . . . The 
posting arrangements of the empire made such a convention far more 
easy than would have been the case at any period in the Middle Ages. 
The great lines of communication were like raihoads, stiaight as arrows, 
from one extremity of the empire to the other. P'rom Bordeaux to 
Constantinople, a few years later, we have the record of 200 post -stations 
and 91 inns— an inn at the interval of every half-day's journey. 

" There were present the learned and the illiterate, courtiers and peas- 
ants, old and young, aged bishops on the verge of the grave, beardless 
deacons just entering on their office; and it was an assembly in which 
the dilTerence between age and youth was of more than ordinary sig- 
nificance, for it coincided with a marked transition in the history of 
the world. The new geneiation had l)eeii Ijrought up in peace and quiet. 
They could just reniemljer the joy dilfused tlirough the Christian com- 
munities by the edict of toleration (§2i)(j), published in their boyhood; 
but they had themselves suffered nothing. Not so the older, and by 
far the larger, part of tlie assembly. They had lived through the last 
and worst of the persecutions, and they came like a regiment out of 
some frightful siege or battle, decimated and mutilated by tlie tortures 
or the hardships they had undergone. ... It was on their character 
as an army of confessors and martyrs, quite as much as on their char- 
acter as an CEcumenical Council that their authority reposed. In this 
respect, no other council approached them." . . . "The whole assem- 
bly rose. . . . and then, for the first time, set their admiring gaze on 
Constantine, the conqueror, the august, the great. Gazing at his splen- 
did figure, as he passed up the hall between their ranks, remembering, 
too, what he had done for their faith and for their church— we may 
well believe that the simple and the worldly both looked upon him as 
though he were an angel of God, descended straight from heaven. . . . 
There was a gentleness and sweetness in his voice which arrested the 
attention of all. . . . 'It has, my friends, been the object of my high- 
est wishes to enjoy yonir .sacred company. ... I rejoice at the mere 
sight of your assembly. But the moment that 1 shall consider the chief 
fulfillment of my prayers will be when I see you all joined together in 
heart and soul, and determining on one peaceful harmony for all. which 
it should well become you who are consecrated to God, to preach to 
others.'" 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. 




URING these last years 
of the Roman Empire 
in the West, the main 
interest centers upon the 
swarms of free warriors who 
were pressing down upon it 
from the plains of central and 
northern Europe. Though 
rude in their ways of living, 
these people — with the ex- 
ception of one tribe, soon to 
be mentioned — belonged to 
the same Indo-Germanic race 
(§6) with the Greeks and 
Romans ; they had much of 
the same capacity for art, 
^^^^ ^~^ science, literature, and gov- 

Captives in War. ernment ; and they were able 

to appreciate and admire in the Roman cities the proofs 
of a civilization far beyond what they had yet been able to 
create. One of their great chiefs^ declared that he would 
rather renew and perpetuate the fame of Rome by Gothic 
strength, than found a new Gothic Empire of which he 
himself should be the Caesar Augustus. 

274. With such feelings many Germans had enlisted in 
the Roman armies, even in the first days of the Empire; 
and, after the time of Constantine, the "barbarians" con- 
stituted the great body of the legions. These gigantic 
warriors were far braver and hardier than the people of 
(158) 




THE GOTHS AND THE HUNS. 159 

the south; and their virtues often put Romans to shame. 
As soldiers they were faithful to the emperors who em- 
ployed them ; but this did not prevent their free country- 
men from being the terror of the declining Empire. The 
principal German tribes were the Goths, Franks, Alemanni, 
Saxons, and Burgundians. 

275. As early as the reign of Valerian (§ 261), the 
Franks and Alemanni had overrun Gaul, Italy, and Spain, 
and had crossed the straits into Africa. The Goths had 
built fleets from the woods near the Danube, with which 
they sailed along the coasts of Asia Minor and Greece, 
plundering and burning many cities, among others Ephesus, 
Corinth, and Athens. Western Europe was, meanwhile, 
afflicted by swarms of Saxon ])irates, while Roman Britain 
was ravaged by the Picts and Scots. The emperor Val- 
entin'ian — the successor of Jovian — and his great general, 

• Theodo'sius, gained important victories over the western 
marauders. 

276. The Gothic kingdom of Her'manric now extended 
from the Danube and Euxine to the Baltic; but, under the 
reigns of Valentinian in the west, and his brother Va'lens 
in the east, the Huns, a new race of savages — 

more fierce, hideous, and terrible than had yet 
been seen — appeared from Asia and conquered the Ostro- 
goths, north of the Black Sea. Their brethren, the Western 
Goths, or Visigoths, begged the protection of the Roman 
emperor in the East. Valens gave them lands ; and a 
million of men, women, and children crossed the Danube. 
But the Roman officers, appointed to receive and feed this 
hungry crowd, were so false to their trust that the Goths 
were driven to revolt. In a great battle near Hadrianople, 
Valens and two-thirds of his army were slain. 

277. His successor, Theodosius,- being called to interfere 
in western Europe in behalf of the sons of Valentinian, 
united the whole Roman dominion for the last time under 



THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



one sovereign. This great emperor well deserved to be 
called " Theodosius the Great." He made friends of the 
Goths by settling colonies of them in Thrace and Asia 
Minor. He put an end to pagan worship in every part 
of the Empire, demolishing the temples or turning them 
into Christian churches. Yet, by one act of needless 
cruelty he incurred the displeasure of the famous Arch- 
bishop Ambrose of Milan, and was forbidden to enter a 
church until he had publicly confessed his guilt. Theo- 
dosius submitted, and, after eight months, was restored to 
his standing as a Christian. 

278. Upon his death, A. D. 395, the Empire was 
divided between his sons Arca'dius and Hono'rius ; and 
the East and the West were never again united except 
in name. Al'aric,^ king of the Visigoths, was placed at 
the head of the imperial armies in the East, and we can 
not tell whether it was as Gothic king or Roman general 
that he three times invaded the dominions of Honorius. 
The first time (A. D. 400-403), he was defeated and 
driven back by Stil'icho, the guardian and minister of the 
young emperor ; five years later he advanced to Rome, 
and only withdrew on receiving an enormous ransom, after 
thousands of its citizens had died of famine or pestilence ; 
the third time, the "eternal city" was actually taken and 

given up for six days to plunder and massacre. 

The spoils of Asia, brought home by Sulla, 
Pompey, and others, from their great campaigns, fell into 
the hands of the barbarians. Alaric died during his retreat 
from Rome. 

279. His brother-in-law, Adol'phus, who succeeded him, 
founded the new kingdom of the Visigoths in Spain. 
Nearly at the same time the Vandals concpiered Roman 
Africa ; the Franks settled themselves in northern, and the 
Burgundians in eastern France. Britain was left to be con- 
quered by the Saxons and kindred tribes from Germany. 



MAP No. VI. 



EMPERORS OF ROME. 



Augustus B. C 


31 


Gallienus A. D. 260. 


Tiberius A. D 


• 14 


Claudius II. 268. 


Caligula 


37 


Aurelian 270. 


Claudius 


41 


. Tacitus 275. 


Nero 


54 


Florian, Probus 276, 


Galba 


68 


Carus 282. 


Otho 


69 


Carinus and Numerian 283. 


Vitellius 


69 


Diocletian with Maximian 284. 


Vespasian 


69 


Constantius with Galerius 305. 


Titus 


79 


Constantine I. with Galerius, 


Domitian 


81 


Severus, and Maxentius 306. 


Nerva 


96 


" with Licinius 307. 


Trajan ^ 


98 


" with Maximinus 308. 


Hadrian 


II" 


7. " alone 323. 


Antoninus Pius 


13^ 


5. Constantine 11., Constantius 


M. Aurelius Antoninus 


16 


[. 11., Constans 337. 


Commodus 


1 8c 


). Julian 361. 


Pertinax 


19. 


3. ! Jovian 363. 


Didius Julianus 


19, 


5. 1 Valentinian I 364. 


Septimius Severus 


19: 


}. Gratian and Valentinian 11. 375. 


Caracalla and Geta 


211 


. Theodosius (East and West) 392. 


alone 


21: 


!. Honorius 395. 


Macrinus 


217 


. Theodosius 11. (E. and W.) 423. 


Elagabalus 


21^ 


!. 1 Valentinian 111. 425. 


Alexander Severus 


22: 


!. I Maximus, Avitus 455. 


Maximinus 


23. 


J. Majorian 457. 


Gordians (father and son) 


235 


5. Libius Severus 461. 


Philip the Arabian 


2\A 


|.. Anthemius 467. 


Decius 


24c 


). Olybrius, Glycerius 472, 473. 


Gallus 


251 


. Julius Nepos 474. 


Valerian 


25: 


,. Romulus Augustulus 475, 476. 



West fnim 3 Greenwich 




Jill. Vail, del. 



(Cop!/right,1.Sn,lii '« 




■rii, Jirai/j, ^ Co.) 



ROMAN WRITERS. 



Poets and Dramatists. 
B. C. 

tlvius Andronicus, 240. 

Neevius, 235 : Tragedies, Com- 
edies. 

Ennius, 239-169: "Annals." 

Plautus, 254-184: Comedies. 

Terence, 195-1 59. 

Pacuvius, 220-130: Tragedies. 

Attius, 170-90: Tragedies. 

Luciliiis, 148-103: Satires. 

Lucretius, 95-51 : Philosophical 
Poem. 

Catullus, 87-47 : Lyrics. 

Virgil, 70-19: the " ^neids," 
" Georgics," and "Bucol- 
ics." 

Horace, 65-8 : Odes, Satires, and 
Epistles. 

TibuUiis, about 54-18: Elegies. 

Propertius, born ab. 51 : Elegies. 

Ovid, B. C. 43-A. D. 18: "The 
Metamorphoses," " Fasti," 
and " Epistles." 
A. D. 

Phaedrus, 25 : Fables. 

Persius, 34-62 : Satires. 

Juvenal, about 100: Satires. 

Martial, 43-104: Epigrams. 

Lucan, 39-65 : Epic Poem, 
" Pharsalia." 

Statins, 61-96 : ' Silvi^e," " The- 
baid," and " Achilleid. ' 



Historians. 
B. C. 

Fabius Pictor, 216. 

Cincius Aliraentus, 218-190. 

Cato the Censor, 234-149 : " The 
Origins," "Agriculture," etc. 

Varro, 116-28: "Agriculture," 
etc 

Julius Caesar, 100-44: "Com- 
mentaries on Gallic War." 

Sallust, 86-34 : " Jugurthine 
War" and "Conspiracy of 
Catiline." 

Livy, 59-A. D. 17: "Annals." 

A. D. 

Tacitus, about 57-117: "An- 
nals," "Histories," "Ger- 
many," etc. 

Suetonius, about 70-117. 

PJiilosopJiers and Orators. 

B. C. 

Cicero, 106-43: " Tusculan Dis- 
putations," "Duties," "Old 
Age," " Friendship," etc. 
A. D. 

Seneca, died 65 : Epistles, etc. 

Pliny the Elder, 23-79 : " Natura'l 
History." 

Pliny the Younger, 61-110: 
" Panegyric on Trajan," etc. 

Celsus, 20 : Medical Treatises. 

Pomponius Mela, 45 : Geograph- 
ical Treatise. 



Note, — The dates are from Smith's Dictionary of Biography, with a few additions 
from Woodward and Gates' Encyclopaedia of Chronology. In some cases they are 
conjectural, as no ancient authorities exist. 



FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. l6i 

280. The Roman generals were called to fight with 
At'tila, king of the Huns, a monster so hideous and hith- 
erto so irresistible, that he was known to the terror-stricken 
world of his time as the Scourge of God. He had rapidly 
built up a kingdom extending from the Rhine to the Volga, 
and from the Black Sea to the Baltic; and a host of 
subject chiefs served in his army of 700,000 men. In a 
great battle at Chalons, he was completely over- 
thrown by the combined force of Romans and ' '*^' 
Goths. Within two years he had collected a fresh horde 
of barbarians, with which he ravaged northern Italy and 
threatened Rome ; but a sudden death ended his career. 

281. A series of crimes and quarrels at court, drew 
the Vandals into Italy. They plundered Rome 

fourteen days, and sailed away to Carthage ' ' ^^^' 

laden with air the treasure which the Goths had left. 
They conquered the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, from 
which they could easily descend at any time upon the 
Italian coasts. After half a dozen insignificant emperors 
had been set up and put down by the German chiefs of 
the army, Rom'ulus Augus'tulus, a harmless boy, became 
the last of the Roman Emperors of the West. But the 
Goths wanted to be paid for their services by one-third 
of all the lands in Italy. Being refused, they deposed 
Augustulus, and conferred sovereign power upon their 
own chief, Odo'acer. 

282. The Roman Senate now sent the purple robe and 
diadem, which had been worn by Augustulus, 

to Ze'no, emperor of the East, acknowledging 
that Constantinople was the seat of government for all 
the world, but requesting that Odoacer might rule Italy 
with the title of Patrician. 

Trace the boundaries of Mermanric's kingdom ; of Attila's. Site 
of Attila's defeat. Settlements of Goths, P^ranks, Vandals, Bur- 
gundians, Saxons. 
Hist. — II. 



1 62 THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



NOTES. 

1. This was Athaulf, or Adolphus, the Visigoth, brother-in-lavv and 
successor of Alaric (see j; 278). See Bryce''s ^'■Holy Roman Empire,'''' Chapter 
III., for a very interesting sketch of the relation of the barbarians to 
tlie declining Roman power. 

2. The Emperor Theodosius I., was a son of the General Theodosius 
named in J!27o. The western countries of Europe were always inclined 
to be independent; and Maxinius, a Spaniard, now made himself masicr, 
for a time, of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, (iratian, the elder son of \:\\- 
entinian, was put to death by tlie usurjier at Ijyons; and his brother, 
Valentinian II., gained, at first, Ijy the intcrNention of Tlu'odosius, only 
Italy, Africa, and western lUyricum. But Maxinius, not content with tlie 
rich' countries tliat he luid usurped, invaded Italy. The feeble Valentin- 
ian could do notliing in his own defense; but Theodosius again took 
up his cause, and Maxinius was defeated and slain, A. D. 388. P'our 
years later, Valentinian II. was murdered, probaljly by order of Arljo- 
gastes, general-in-cliief of his armies, who, not daring to assume the 
imperial crown himself, set up Eugenius, his former secretary, as Em- 
peror of the West. Tiieodosius marched to avenge the inurdered Val- 
entinian, whose sister was his wife. He was victorious as before. En- 
genius was l)eheaded in the very presence of his conqueror, and Arljo- 
gastes, after wandering, nearly starved, in the desolate mountain passes, 
killed himself with his own sword. Theodosius reigned four montlis 
over the vast dominions of Augustus; but, upon his deatii, at Milan, in 
the January following the defeat of Eugenius, his son Honorius re- 
ceived the crown of the western empire, wliile Arcadius reigned at Con- 
stantinople over tlie Roman dominion in tlie East. 

Theodosius was not baptized until the end of the first year of his 
reign; but he immediately signalized his zeal by an edict, which de- 
nounced not only paga,ns, but those who held the Christian faith in 
any other form than that which had been authorized by the Council 
of Nicfea. In May, 381, he convened, at Constantinople, a second gen- 
eral council to confirm and complete the work of its predecessor. The 
crowning victory over paganism was tlie destruction of tlie colossal im- 
age of Serapis and his niagiiiticent temple at Alexandria. Egypt was 
the home of the most monstrous superstitions, anil the worship of Se- 
rapis was among the most widely spread and deeijly seated. It must 
be remembered that even Christians, at this time, believed the pa;j;aii 
deities to be living and powerful beings, thougli evil in character; and 
there was a general fear that Serapis would avenge any violence done 
to his dwelling-place. At last, a soldier, braver than the rest, mounted 
a ladder, and with his axe aimed a heavy blow at the cheek of the 
image. The face fell, and no harm came to tlie assailant. Then the 
crowd, relieved of its terrors, pulled down the monstrous frame and 
dragged it in triumph througli tlie streets of Alexandria. 

The crime for which the emperor sutt'ered penance at Milan was a 
general massacre which he onlered at Tlicssalonica, cjipital of the prov- 
ince of Macedonia. His provocation liad been serious, but the punish- 
ment far exceeded tlie offense. In A. D. 390, a charioteer of the circus 
had been imprisoned for just cause; tlie people, after vainly demand- 
ing his appearance, broke out into a riot, mui-dered the general and his 
officers, and dragged their bodies about the streets. This was the act 
of the lowest of the mob; but, to avenge it, Theodosius sent an army 
of barbarian mercenaries, invited all the Thessalonians to witness the 
games in the circus, anti, when thousands were assembled, commanded 
an indiscriminate slaughter Innocent and guilty i)erislu'd alike, some 
say to the number of 14,000, others estimate it at iialf that luimucr. The 
personal humiliation of the emperor, though it might prove his return 
to right feeling, could not undo his atrocious act. 

3. Alaric had studied the arts of war under Theodosius, M'ho well 
knew how to make frienrls of the Goths and to strengthen his armies 
by the enrollment of their brave youth. As soon as the great emperor 
was dead, the Visigotlis tlin'w olf the imperial yoke, chose Alaric to be 
their leader, and, issuing from Thrace, overran Greece and captured 
Athens. Arcadius, alarmed by his successes, tried to enlist the Gothic 



NOTES. 163 

leader on his own side by making him master-general of the imperial 
armies; and, as the eastern and western empires were now at war, Alaric 
was sent to invade Italy in A. D. 403. The Emperor Honorius abandoned 
Milan at the approach of the Goths, and shut himself up in the fort- 
ress of Asta. Alaric besieged him there, but Stilicho advanced to the 
relief of his master and gained an advantage over the invaders at Pol- 
lentiM. The (ioths were still more decisively defeated at Verona, and 
Alaric now agreetl to leave Italy and to serve Honorius as maslt r-jjen- 
eral of the Konian forces in Avestern Illyricum, turning his arms against 
his late master Arcadius. But the fame of Alaric soon tirew tluongs of 
German youth to his personal service, and he resunie<l his jilans against 
Italy. In A. D. 408 he sent messengers to Honorius, demanding an ex- 
Irav'agant reward for his three years' service, and intimating that, if this 
were refused, war M'ould be the result. The Roman senate voted for 
war ratlier than submission to this haughty demand; but the great in- 
rtuence of Stilicho overruled their objection, and persuaded them to 
buy peace with 4000 pounds' weight of gold. This was done. But while 
Alaric and his (ioths were still at the foot of the Alps, the weak and 
cowardly Honorius procured the assassination of Stilicho, with his son 
and almost all his officers. At the same time, the wives and children 
of (iothic soldiers iu the Roman service were massacred in the Roman 
cities. This insane and wanton outrage .seemed designed to provoke 
the vengeance of Alaric just when the only man who could have re- 
.sisted him was dead. He crossed the Venetian plains without meeting 
a man in arms, marched on Rome, and besieged the city. Again a 
heavy ransom induced him to retire, but Honorius even now failed to 
keephis agreements, and Alaric besieged Rome a second time in A. D. 
409. In spite of aH- provocations, he tried to save the city from the 
worst consequences of war, charging his soldiers to respect the churches, 
and, as far as possible, to spare innocent lives. Conferences were in 
progress with the imperial ministers, when the Goths hi Ravenna were 
again treacherously assaulted by order of Honorius. Alaric's patience 
was now exhausted, and, entering Rome Angust24, 410, he gave the city 
up to pillage for six days, still under the same restrictions as to life, 
and sacred things. Then he led off his tioops; but soon afterward, 
while besieging ("osenza, in Calabria, the great chief died, and was bur- 
ied, by his own desire, in the bed of the little river Busentinus, which 
had been turned from its course by the labor of a multitude of his cap- 
tives. " The royal sepulcher, adorned with the splendid spoils and tro- 
phies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the waters were 
then restored to their natural channel, and the .secret spot where the 
remains of Alaric had been deposited was forever concealed by the in- 
human massacre of the prisoners who had been employed to execute 

the work.'— (i'/V(/;o;(. 

The story of Alaric well illustrates the weakness of the divided em- 
pire, and the vacillating policy of the imperial ministers, who, while 
fearing the Goths, often used them as instruments of their own venge- 
ance upon their rivals. 

4. Attila succeeded", about A. D. 432, to his hereditary chieftainship 
of the nomadic Huns north of the Danube. The victory at Chalons was 
the last one ever gained by the armies of the western Roman empire, 
and the conflict which it ended was one of the most memorable and de- 
cisive battles in history. To all human views, it settled the great ques- 
tion whether modern Europe should be Teuton or Tartar. The Goths 
Were alreaily Christian; their rude energy was well adapted to the laws 
and institutions of civilized life. The Huns were savage, heathen, de- 
structive; mighty to ravage and desolate, but never to build and or- 
ganize a state. Most of what we admire in European history would 
liave been reversed if Attila had gained the battle of Chalons. He died 
in Hungary A. D. 4')3 or 4o4. The terror and excitement he had caused 
are voiced in many old German songs and legends, notably in the 
Nibelungen Lied. 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW.— BOOK I. 



Section 

1. How are men divided in their manner of living? I, 2 

2. What are the main divisions of History? 5 

3. Describe the three great families of mankind and their 

earliest settlements. 6, 7 

4. The character and history of the ChakUvans. 7, 8 

5. Name the greatest Assyrian kings and their doings. 9-15 

6. Describe Media and the Medes. 16 

7. The Babylonians and their greatest king. 17-21 

8. Phoenician commerce, government, and history. 22-25 

9. Name four Syrian nations. 26 

10. Give some account of the nations in Asia Minor. 27-29 

11. Tell the story of the Israelites before Saul. 30-32 

12. Describe the three kings of all Israel. 33-35 

13. The two Hebrew kingdoms after their separation. 36-38 

14. The Jews under Persian rule. 39> 4° 

15. The characters of the Medes and Persians. 41, 62-64 

16. The career of Cyrus. 42-45 

17. Of Cambyses and his successor. 45-47 

18. The history and dominion of Darius I. 48-52 

19. The career of Xerxes. 53^55 

20. Sketch the History of Persia under his successors. 56-59 

21. Describe the fall of the Persian Empire. 59 -61 

22. Africa and the Nile. 65 

23. Who settled Egypt ? 7. 66 

24. Describe Egyptian arts and religion. 67, 73-75> 79' 80 

25. The different castes or ranks. 76-78 

26. Sketch their history. 68-72 

27. The history of Carthage; its government, etc. 81-84 

28. Of what race and character were the Greeks? 85-88 

29. Name some of the heroes and their doings. 90-92 

30. Describe the manners and religion of the early Greeks. 93-99 

31. Their migrations and changes of government. 100, loi 
(164) 



QUESTIONS — BOOK I. 165 

What bonds of union among the Greeks ? 102 - 

Describe Spartan character and customs. 106- 
Name some early wars of Sparta. 

Describe the Athenians and their first two lawgivers. iio- 

The Tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons. 
How were future tyrannies guarded against ? 

Describe the Persian invasions of Greece. 52-55, 115- ■ 

Tell something of Pausanias, Cimon, Themistocles. 119- 

The story of Pericles. 123- 

Of Alcibiades and the fall of Athens. 130- 

What can you tell of Socrates ? 134, 
How was the Corinthian War ended ? 

Describe the rise and fall of Theban supremacy. 136, 

How did Greece become subject to Macedon ? 138, 

Why was the poetry of Greece older than its prose? 142, 

What can you tell of Homer? 94, 100, 

Of Hesiod and his works? 

Name some great lyric poets. 146, 
Describe the theatre at Athens, and name four masters 

of dramatic writing. 148, 

The greatest Greek historians. 150, 

Describe three schools of Greek philosophy. 152, 

What can you tell of Plato and Aristotle? 154, 
What can you say of Greek architecture and sculpture? 

Name some of the most celebrated works. I57- 

Tell the story of Alexander. 160- 
How was his empire divided after his death ? 

Describe the Syrian kingdom, and some of its kings. 168, 
What new dominions arose in the East ? 
Who were the Maccabees? 

Describe Ptolemy I, and his successors. 172- 

What became of Macedonia and Greece? 176-: 

Who and what were the Romans? 179, 
Name the Roman kings. 

Describe the government of the Republic. 182 -: 

The religion of the Romans. 186- : 

The patrician and plebeian contests. 191 -194; 196 

The Gallic invasion. 

The Samnites. 

Tell two stories of the Latin War. 199, 200 

Describe the Samnite Wars. 201, 202 



1 66 QUESTIONS.— BOOK I. 



What was done with lands conquered from the /Equi ? 203 

Tell the story of Pyrrhus. 204 

Describe Roman colonies and provinces. 205, 209, 244 

How did Rome become a maritime power? 206-208 

Describe the career of Hannibal. 210-214 

The last Punic War. 215 

What was done with Greece and Spain? 216 
Describe the dangers of Rome, and the efforts of 

the Gracchi. 217-219 

Tell the history of Marius and Sulla. 220-226 

Describe the Gladiator's War. 227 

The Conspiracy of Catiline. 229 

The history of Pompey. 228-235 

Of Julius Cajsar. 230-238 

Of Crassus. 231, 232 

Of Ctesar Octavianus. 238-245 

WHiat change of government did he make? 241-244 

Describe his three successors. 246-249 

The character and reign of Nero. 250, 251 

Vespasian and his sons. 252 

Describe the reigns of the " Five Good Emperors." 253, 254 

The state of the empire under Commodus. 255 

W^hat were the Prte.torian Guards ? 244, 256 

Tell the history of Septimius .Sexerus and liis sons. 256, 257 

What contrast between Elagabalus and his successor ? 258, 259 

What calamities mark the reign of Valerian? 261 

Describe his successors. 262 

What changes were made by r)iocletian ? 263-266 

Tell the history of Constantine. 266-269 

Of his sons and nephew. 270-272 

What emperors persecuted Christians? 250, 254, 260, 265 

Name and describe the chief German tribes. 273-275 

Describe Attila and his Huns. 276, 280 

Theodosius the Great, and the divisions of the 

Empire. 277, 278 

The Goths and Vandals in Italy. 27S, 281 
Who settled in England; in France; in Spain; in 

northern Africa ? 279 
107. What disposal was made of the Western Roman 

Empire ? 282 



BOOK II.— MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTION. 

283. When the empire of the C^sars was falling into 
the hands of barbarians, and Rome itself — the Eternal 
City — Avas plundered by Goths and Vandals, most people 
thought the end of the world had come. The old world 
had, indeed, passed away: the magnificence of Persia, the 
learning of Egypt, the brilliancy of Greece, the majesty 
of Rome were all in the past; but out of the northern 
forests had come the founders of new nations, who now 
possess Europe and America, India and Australia, and 
many islands of which Rome never dreamed. 

284. Mediaeval history covers the thousand years from the 
time when the barbarian Odoacer became king of Italy to 
the time when the present system of European nations was 
established. It is to be studied in two parts : the first six 
hundred years, when the destructive passions of men were 
in ascendency, are called the Dark Ages; the last four 
hundred, when the tendencies to order and civilization had 
gained strength, are called the Middle Ages. 

285. Even in the Dark Ages some powerful civilizing 
agencies were at work. Most of the barbarians in south- 
ern Europe were Christians, and held the clergy in great 
respect. They also admired the Roman skill in govern- 
ment, and gladly availed themselves of the services of 
Roman officials. So it came to pass that most of the 

(i67) 



1 68 IN TROD UCriON. 



cities in Gaul, Spain, and Italy kept their Greek or Roman 
charters, with their bishops for chief magistrates ; and that 
life in these cities was, for a time, as orderly and secure 
as it had been in the days of the Empire. 

Learning had almost wholly disappeared from among 
the laity; the clergy alone could read and write, and pos 
sessed the universal Latin language which was used m 
dealings between the several nations. They framed laws, 
negotiated treaties, kept the records of public events, and 
executed missions to foreign kings. The education of 
young chiefs was entrusted to them ; and their influence 
did not cease when their pupils had grown to manhood. 
Thus the power of the Church rose rapidly upon the 
ruins of imperial Rome. It was, indeed, the only power 
which could hold in check the proud and passionate con- 
querors; and the "Dark Ages" would have been darker 
still, but for the lights of reason and piety which the 
churches kept alive. Many men of superior talents with- 
drew from the turmoil of public life into monasteries, 
where they gave themselves to study and devotion. All 
that was left of the treasures of ancient learning was 
gathered within these convent walls, and the industry of 
the monks multiplied copies of the old manuscripts, which 
afford our only means of knowing the thoughts of the 
Greek and Roman writers. 



PART I. — The Dark Ages. 



CHAPTER I. 

SETTLEMENTS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 




T the end of the fifth century 
from the birth of Christ, the 
western European nations may 
already be traced in their rude 
beginnings. The heathen 
Angles and Saxons were crowd- 
ing the Celtic Britons into the 
mountain-region of Wales, and 
giving its present name to Eng- 
land. They learned Christian 
doctrines a hundred years later 
from Roman missionaries, and 
taught them to their heathen 
brethren on the continent. The 
continental Saxons occupied 



A Prankish Warrior. 

most of the land between the lower Rhine and the 
Baltic. 



287. The Akmanni possessed southern Germany and part 
of Switzerland, while the Burgitndians had the valley of 
the Rhone and the Swiss lakes. The Franks held the 
country between the Loire and the Rhine. Chlodwig^ or 
Clo'vis, their chief, gained many victories over the Ale- 
manni, the Burgundians, and the Visigoths, and made 
himself king of nearly all France. His wife, Clotil'da,. 
was a Christian; and Clevis, though a pagan, was so 

(169) 



lyo MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. 



impressed by her faith thcat he called upon "Clotilda's 
God," at the turning point of a battle. He gained the 
victory, A. D. 496, and, with thousands of his warriors, 
was immediately baptized. The Eastern emperor sent him 
the purple robe and diadem of a consul, making him 
a lieutenant of the Empire. The descendants of Clovis, 
though often divided by fierce contentions, ruled the 
countries which are now Belgium, Western Germany, 
and a great part of France, for more than two hundred 
years. 

288. One powerful Gothic kingdom occupied Spain 
(§279) and south-western Gaul; another, under Theod'- 
oric,^king of the Ostrogoths, embraced Italy and the lands 
between the Adriatic and the Danube. This great chief 
had been a hostage at Constantinople during his youth ; 
and the education which he there received added the 
quick intelligence of the Greek to the rude energy of 
the Goth. He learned, also, a profound respect for the 
imperial system of laws, and his firm rule of thirty-three 

years was a hai)py time for Italy. Two 
' *^^ ^^ ' consuls, one chosen by himself and one by 
the emperor of the East, kept up the ancient forms of 
government. All religions were protected, and, though 
the Goths held one-third of the lands and formed a kind 
of military aristocracy, they paid an equal share of the 
taxes, and respected all the rights of their Italian neigh- 
bors. Theodoric was the greatest German monarch of his 
time ; the chiefs of the other nations referred their differ- 
ences to him and regarded him as their head. 

289. In the confusion that followed Theodoric's death, the 
Eastern emperor interfered, and, in spite of a long and 
brave resistance from the Goths, ■'■ made Italy a subject- 
province. But a new German race, the Lombards, or 
Long-Beards, soon appeared and overran the whole penin- 
sula, which was afterwards divided among their thirty 



THE LOMBARDS. 171 



dukes. Rome, Ravenna, Naples, and some other cities 
still remained subject to the Empire, while the Lombards 
ruled the rest with Pavia for their capital. The great 
northern plain of Italy still bears their name. The Lom- 
bards were a fierce and cruel race, never mingling in a 
friendly manner with the Italians, as the Goths had done. 
Still, they became educated, in the course of years, by 
contact with wiser and better people than themselves; so 
that the system of laws published by their king, Rotharis, 
in 643 A. D., was the best of all the barbarian codes.'* 
It was founded upon the ancient customs of the German 
tribes, but it borrowed some of its best features from the 
Roman laws, and especially from the Bible. 

290. All the tribes hitherto described were Germans: west 
of them was a narrow border of Celts in Scotland, Ireland, 
Wales, and north-western France ; while eastward were the 
Slavonians, far more numerous, though less warlike, than 
the Germans — fathers of the modern Poles, Bohemians, 
Bulgarians, Illyrians, and a very large proportion of the 
Russians. 

Point out, on Map 4, the settlements of the German tribes. The 
Lombard capital of Italy. The Italian cities which belonged to the 
Eastern Empire. The dominions of the SLavonians and Celts. 

Read Ciilibon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire;" Parke 
(jotlwin's History of France; and Ilallani's Middle Ages. 

NOTES. 

1. Chlodwig ■' was born about A. D. 466, and, at the age of fifteen 
years, succ-eetlod his father, Childeric, as king of tlie Salian Franks. 
Five years later he gained a victory over the Romans and Gauls, cap- 
turing from them the town of Soissons, whicli lie made his capital. 
More than half of i^rance was then occupied by the Goths and Bui- 
gundians. Alaric, king of tlie Visigoths, ruled from the Loire to the 
Pyrenees; but he was defeated and slain in a great battle near Poitiers, 
A. D. 507, and his whole dominion was added to the kingdom of the 



*The General History admits the common French names of the Prankish sovereigns, 
only because the usage 'has been too long established to be easily changed ; and many 
allusions in literature would fail to be understood if the German names had been used. 
In strict accuracy, C/otns should be Hlodwig or Chlodwig (the original of Ludwig or Lewis); 
Charlemagne (530S) is Karl the Great ; Albert is Albrecht ; and Egbert is Ecgberht It is im- 
portant to remember that the descendants, both of Hlodwig and of Karl were Germans : 
they spoPce the Old Hi^h German language, which is the parent of Modern German, and 
were regarded as foreigners bv the Gauls and Romans whom tliey coniiuered and nUed. 
The modern French monarchy dates from the accession of Hugh Capet (§338) A. I). 9a7. 



172 MEDIyEVAL HISTORY. 

Franks. Clotilda was a niece of the king of Burgundy, by whom, in 
her helpless orphanage, she had been cruell.y oppressed. CJIovis, of 
course, made her quarrel his own, and gained decisive victories over her 
kinsmen. His conversion gained for him tlie powerful support of the 
clergy; but it does not seem to have greatly altered thelierceness of liis 
nature. He destroyed many princes of his own family in order to gain 
the sovereignty of all the Franks, which he succeeded in doing toward 
the end of his life. 

The dynasty which he founded is called Merovingian, from Merowig, 
his grandfather. 

2. Theodoric the Great, a son of King Theodemir, was born A. D. 
4r)5. The East (ioths were then settled between the Danube and the 
Adriatic; and, though allies of the Eastern P^nipire, were usually re- 
garded with suspicion and required to give hostages for their friendly 
behavior. This was, perhaps, a fortunate state of things iov Theodoric, 
for it procured him the opportunity to study the higliest civilization of 
his age; and the lessons which he learned at Constantinople were of 
rich benefit to his Italian sulyects in later years. 

At the age of twenty, Theodoric succeeded liis father as king of the 
Ostrogoths; and soon afterward was involved in war svith Zeno, Empe- 
ror of the East, who had usurped the throne of Theodoric's late host and 
Ijeuefactor, Leo I. The Gothic king was on the point of capturing Con- 
stantinople, when Zeno, who had been driven from the city, had tlie 
art to engage him in the conquest of Italy. Odoacer, a Gothic or Her- 
ulian cliieftain, had put an end to what remained of the Western Ro- 
man Empire. Theodoric three times defeated him in battle, and finally 
besieged him in Ravenna, which surrendered after three years, and the 
whole peninsula submitted to tlie Gothic king. For some years Tlieo- 
doric was regent for his grandson Amalaric, the young king of the 
West Goths, and ruled all the country from Sicily to the Danube, and 
from Belgrade to the Atlantic. But as soon as Amalaric was of age, he 
was lifted upon the shields of the Visigothic chiefs, according to the 
custom of all German tribes, and was thus invested with royal power 
A. D. 522. Subsequently, his grandfather aided him in wars against the 
sons of Clovis, with varying success. 

So large a mind as that of Tlieodoric could not fail to be in advance 
of an age in wliich civilization and barbarism were curiously mixed. 
In the latter part of his reign, a fierce, fanatical rage against the Jews 
broke out into a riot, in wliicli houses, shoi>s. and synagogues in sev- 
eral cities were burnt. Theodoric, witli impartial justice, required the 
mobs to make good the property they had destroyed. But tlieir rage 
was then turned against the king. Disheartened by his failure to main- 
tain order, or, perhaps, depressed by failing health, he became a prey 
to unjust suspicions. 

Boethius, a distinguished statesman and philosopher, the brightest 
ornament of the court, was accused by his envious rivals of having con- 
spired with the Emperor of the East to drive the Goths out of Italy. 
He was tlirown into prison, where he wrote in prose and verse, his ad- 
mirable treatise on the "Consolation of Philosophy," a work wliich 
Alfred the Great so valued that he translated it into the Saxon English 
of his time (^329). 

The execution of Boethius by the king's order was soon followed by 
that of his father-in-law, the venerable Syramachus; but grief and re- 
morse for these two acts hastened the death of Theodoric, who died 
within a year, A. D. 526. 

The good effects of Theodoric's reign were not all lost, even when, 
after sixty years' duration, his kingdom was overthrown, A. D. 55;>. 

Cassiodorus, his learned secretary and chief minister, liad founded, at 
Ravenna, the first of modern public libraries. After thirty years of high 
office under Theodoric and his successor, Cassiodorus retired at the age 
of seventy, to a monastery, whicli he established at Squillace; and, 
duiing his thirtv remaining years— for he lived nearly a century— he 
gave an impulse to monastic learning which lasted through tlie Middle 
Ages. He spent large sums of money for manuscripts which he en- 
couraged the monks to copy; and thus set a fashion which insured the 
safe preservation of many treasures of ancient literature through atrcs of 
war and tumult. But for the convent-libraries, modern learning would 
have been a new creation— robbed of all its rich inheritance from the past. 



NOTES. 173 



3. Rome was surrendered without a blow by its senate and clergy, 
A. D. ooii; but \'itiges, the third successor of Theodoric, mustered a pow- 
erful army and liesieged Belisarlus more than a year in the Eternal 
City. Tlie se]iulcht'r of Hadrian, now the castle of 8t. Angelo, was then 
first vised as a fortress, and the beautiful Greeli statues which adorned 
it were hurled down upon the heads of the besiegers. 

In aNintile assault the Goths lost %)f.M) men; and, at length, Vitiges 
was compelled to draw off liis reduced army to Ravenna, leaving all 
Italy to JJclisarius. Ten thousand Kurgundians, wlio had come to the 
aid of the (Toths, destroyed the splendid city of Milan; and the next 
year, Theodebert, their Frankish sovereign, passed the Alps with 100,000 
men, disguising his intentions until he fell, almost at the same moment, 
upon both the Gothic and the Roman army near Pa via, and gained a 
complete victory, A. D. 539. This was a double treachery; for he had 
accepted great gifts both from the emperor and the Gothic king, as the 
price of his alliance. Theodebert then ravaged Italy until famine and 
disease had leduced his army to one third of its original numbers, and 
he withdrew beyond the Alps. Ravenna, which, secure within its 
marshes, could not be reduced by the Roman forces, at length yielded 
to famine. The Goths, weary of the unfortunate reign of Vitiges, begged 
Belisarlus himself to become their king. He pretended to accept their 
offer, but, as .soon as the keys of the fortress were in his hands, he de- 
clared that he held them only as the faithful subject and lieutenant of 
Justinian. 

Pavia alone, with its garrison of 1,000 Goths, still held out; but, as .soon 
as Belisarlus had been recalled to Constantinople, the new king, Totila, 
commenced his rapid and triumphant inarch for the recovery of Italy. 
Rome was retaken, A. D. 54(); its senators were carried away to Cam- 
panian prisons, and its people were scattered in exile. Belisarlus, re- 
turning, soon regained the city and defeated the Goths in a decisive 
battle. But the great general was fettered by the ungenerous suspicious 
of his master (notes T, 2, Ch. II). Totila, A. D. 549, again took Rome, 
following up his success by the conquest of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, 
and the invasion of Greece. An embassy, undertaken by the Pope liim- 
self, now induced Justinian to .send a sufficient force, under Narses, for 
the recovery of Italv. In a great battle near Tagina, Totila was slain, 
and Rome, for the fifth time in one reign, changeil masters, A. D. 552. 

All Italy was ruled for a time by the lieutenants of the empire, who 
bore the title of Exarchs of Ravenna. Narses, the first aad greatest of 
the exarchs, reigned A. D. .S54-568. — Manual of Mediceval and Modern His- 
tory, pp. 22, 23, fi 290. 

4. Within aijout a century, all the German tribes systematized their 
ancient customs or usages into written codes of law. Thus Tlieodoric, 
the eldest son of Clovis, reigning at Metz over tlie north-eastern portion 
of his father's dominion, caused three codes to be piepared for his Ale- 
mannic. Bavarian, and Rijiuaiian subjects, respectively. Six codes were 
in force under the Londjard kings, after their conquest of Italy,— the 
Roman, Gothic, Salian, Hipuaiian, Atemannic, and the Lombard of 
King Rotharis. Any man, when summoned into court, might declare 
by whicli code he lived and desired to be judged; but, unless he could 
prove himself a member of a Teutonic tribe, the Roman law prevailed. 
All the codes, though embodying immemorial customs, were formed 
under more or less influence from the clergy, and were modified by 
the princii>les of the Scriptures. 

After the Lombard conquest, the exarchate of Ravenna comprised 
only what were lately the States of the Church, together with Venice, 
Naples, and the Calabrian coast. 





Byzantine Priest. 



CHAPTER IT. 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST. 

HOUGH the emperor at Constan- 
tinople still called himself lord of 
all the countries Avhich Augustus 
or Trajan had ruled, and though the 
jK Cxerman chiefs acknowledged him their 
/ superior (§ 281), his actual dominion 
was but little more extensive than that 
of the modern Turks. 

292. During the sixth century the great- 
est emperor was Justin'ian,^ 

A. D. 527-565. , , - /". ,1 ■ 

the grandson of a Gothic 
farmer. He had fierce and costly wars 
with Persia, and obtained peace at last 
only by paying tribute to the Sassanidse (§ 259). His 
military glory is all due to his great generals, Belisa'rius- 
and Nar'ses. The former conquered northern Africa, 
Sardinia, and Corsica from the Vandals (§279); Sicily 
and all Italy from the (ioths (§ 288). Theodoric's king- 
dom fell, sixty years from its foundation. Italy, Africa, 
and the islands were then governed by exarchs, or lieuten- 
ants of the Empire, one having his seat at Carthage and 
one at Ravenna. Narses, who had an important part in 
the contpiest of the Goths, was exarch of Ravenna four- 
teen years. 

293. Justinian is noted for the splendid buildings with 
which he adorned his capital, among which the Church 
of Santa Sophia was said to surpass the Temple of Solo- 
mon. But his best title to fame is in the legislative work 

(1 74 J 



LAWS OF JUSTINIAN. 175 

which afforded a model of civil law for all the nations of 
Europe. The ablest jurists, under his direction, compared 
the decisions of all the best judges since the preparation of 
the Twelve Tables (§ 194). These, when edited, formed 
the Pandects. The Code was an abridgment of the acts of 
all the emperors since Hadrian. The Institutes set forth 
the elementary principles of law, and afforded a text-book 
to the great law-schools of Rome, Athens, Beirut, and 
Constantinople. 

294. By the wars of Herac'lius,^ one of the greatest of 
Justinian's successors (A. D. 610-641), the Persian Empire 
was overthrown, but the same emperor saw the rise of a 
new and greater power in the East, which will be described 
in the next chapter. Leo 1 11.^ is called the second founder 
of the Eastern Empire. His brilliant defense of the cap- 
ital against the Saracens, saved it from destruction, while 
his firm and wise government gave it a new era of security. 
His subjects were the most prosperous people 
of that age. The commerce of Europe with ' ^'^ ^^'' 

Asia had its center at Constantinople, and the cities of 
central and eastern Asia were then far more flourishing 
than now. Leo's attempt to put down the wor.ship of 
images led to a violent contest, both in the East and in 
Italy, and was a chief cause of the separation between the 
Greek and Roman churches. 

•295. The Macedonian Dynasty, of which Basil L was 
the founder,^ governed the Empire nearly 200 years, and, 
in 867 A. D. , raised it to its highest military fame by 
wars with the Saracens, Russians, and Bulgarians. Basil 
IL was the greatest of the imperial generals.^ 

Trace, on Map 5, the conquests of Belisarius. Point out the 
capitals of the two Exarchates (g 292). Justinian's capital. 

Read Gibbon, and Finlay's "History of the Byzantine Empire." 

Also, Rawlinson's "Seventh Ancient Eastern Monarchy." 



176 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. Justinian was born A. D. 4.S.>, in Dardania. At the age of 35, he 
was associated with his uncle, Justin I., in the imperial dignity, and 
nine years later became sole emperor. The rivalries of the circus in 
Constantinople, between the " Blue " and the " Green " faction led to open 
riot and rebellion, in which 30,000 lives were destroyed, but the prompt- 
ness of Belisarius, general of the Imperial Guard, quelled the insurrec- 
tion, and the clemency of Justinian soothed the discontonls and en- 
mities out of which it had arisen. The Church of Sant:i Sopliia (Holy 
Wisdom) was among the buildings destroyed in the contlagration ; and 
Justinian caused it to be rel)uilt on a far more magnilieent scale fronithe 
plans of the architect Anthi'mius. It is now said to be one of the most 
remarkable buildings of any age or country; and Justinian considered 
liimself, by reason of it, as a rival of Solomon. Upon the Turkish con- 
quest of Constantinople (2 379) this great church was converted into a 
mos(|ue. 

oilier temples, as well as convents, roads, bridges, aqueducts, and for- 
tifications in various parts of the empire attested the architectural zeal 
and liberality of Justinian. 

The Imws of Rome had never been reduced to a system since the time 
of tlie Decemviri and the Twelve Tables (^194), for Julius (';csar had not 
been allowed time to fultill his purpose (^ 237). Every thing (ki>ended 
uixin precedents, and tiiese could be learned only from a mass of sepa- 
rate decisidn.-i "which no fortune could buy, and no intelligence could 
comprehend." The need and importance of Justinian's work is there- 
fore evident. At the head of the commission of ten, who prepared the 
flrst code, was Tribonian, a celebrated jin-ist and a great favorite with 
tlie emperor. 

Justinian was a IDjeral patron of many industrial arts, and it was 
during liis reign thtit the eggs of silkworms were tirst brought from 
China to the West. Tlie culture of mulberry plants and the manufact- 
ure of silk were encoitraged by the emperor, and became a very im- 
portant industry in Greece and the Mediterranean islands. 

2. Belisarius was an otflcer of Justinian's guard before the latter be- 
came emiieror in .527, and he was soon afterward promoted to be gen- 
eral-in-clilef in the army of the East. In this capacity he defeated the 
Persians at Dora, in •>«, and put down a dangerous riot in the capital, 
532. His greatest victories were over the Vandals and the Goths, as 
mentioned in tlie text; but liis most powerful enemy was tlie Empress 
Tlieodora, wlio poisoned the mind of Justinian against him, deprived 
him of the men and war materials that he had a right to expect for his 
enterprises in Italy, and thus detracted from his success, and more than 
once deprived liiin of liis command. On a false accusation of conspir- 
acy against Justinian, he was imprisoned and robbed of all his posses- 
sions. There is a story that blindness was added to his misfortunes of 
poverty and old age; and that he was seen begging in the streets of 
Constantinople: "Give a penny to Belisarius tlie general." But this is 
more picturesque than true. We may be certain, however, that no 
greit man ever suffered niore from the malice and jealousy of those who 
ought to liave been his friends; and we may reasonably conjectvu'e that if 
Belisarius, like Ceesar and Napoleon, had i)ossessed means commensur- 
ate with his talents, he would have ranlced with them among tlie great- 
est generals of all ages. 

3. Heraclius was born about A. I). .")73, in Cappadocia, the son of a 
Koman governor of Africa, of the same name. He had gained distinc- 
tion in the army before tlie violent deatli of Phocas, an odious tyrant, 
opened for him the way to the imperial throne. His empire was al- 
reatly in the grasp of (Jhosroi^s II., king of Persia, one of whose armies 
had conquered Syria, Egypt, and northern Africa as far as Tripoli, while 
another had advanced to the Bosphorus and held its camp for ten 
years in sight of Constantinople. Tlie genius and courage of Heraclius 
shone brightest in these years of adversit.y. He conveyed his army by 
sea to the borders of Syria and Cilicia, and, on the very spot where Al- 
exander, nearly a thousand years before, in tlie battle of Issus ('i 160) had 
overthrown the ancestor of Chosroes, intiicted a decisive defeat upon 



NOTES. 177 

the Persian hosts. In a second expedition he carried the war into Per- 
sia, and forced Chosroes to recall his forces from the Nile and the Bos- 
phorus; in a third, he gained a battle on the ground that covered the 
ruins of Nineveh, utterly (h^stroying the armies of Persia, The power 
of the second Persian empire expired with Chosroes, and its existence 
was soon ended by the ^Nloliammedans. 

But these extraordinary etiorts had exhausted the forces of the em- 
pire, and the Saincens soon gained all that lleraclius had wrested from 
the Persians. Tlie emiieror, as if content with liis early achievements, 
gave himself up to excessive luxury, while province after province was 
seized by the enemy; and his empire covered only Constantinople and 
its suburljs. The glory of liis ydutli was lost in the disgrace of his old 
age. Hallam well says: "That prince may be said to have stood on the 
verge of both hemispheres of time whose youth was crowned with the 
last victories over the successors of Artaxerxes, and whose age was 
clouded by the first calamities of Mohammedan invasion." 

4. Leo III., the son of an Isaurian farmer, rose, by his military tal- 
ents, to the highest command in the armies of AnastasiusII. "When 
Theodosius III., in 716, deposed Anastasius and commanded the army 
to acknowledge him as emperor, Leo instantly marched against him 
and defeated him. Instead, however, of reinstating his former sover- 
eign, he made himself master of the empire. Scarcely was he seated 
on the throne, when the Saracen forces advanced to their third siege of 
Constantinople (see g 299). This lasted just two years, Aug. 15, 718, to 
Aug. 15, 720, and was pressed with all the energy and fury of the earliest 
Saracen period. But Leo, issuing with his galleys from the Golden Horn, 
three times consumed the Moslem fleets with storms of Greek fire, and 
returned laden with plunder and with multitudes of captives. At length 
he gained a complete victory by land, and the caliph retreated after a 
loss of 28,000 men. 

Wliile the emperor was so long shut up in his capital, the besiegers 
took good care that no news of their defeat should reach the provinces; 
and it was even believed in the West that the empire had been over- 
thrown. But Leo's energy and promptness soon regained Sicily and the 
portion of Italy that still obeyed the eastern Caesars. Leo's edict against 
images, was a political, quite as much as a religious measure, for he 
hoped to soothe the enmity of Jews and Mohammedans, which had 
been excited by the novel practices in the churches. We have seen 
that he failed; indeed, his edict was the signal for a general revolution, 
in which Ravenna, Rome, and the other Greek possessions in Italy were 
lost to the empire. 

5. Basil I. was said to be descended, on the father's side, from the 
Arsaeidte, rulers of the Parthian Empire; on the mother's, from Con- 
stantine the Great, and, perhaps, from Philip and Alexander of Mace- 
don. It is probable, however, that the name of "Macedonian," borne 
by his dynasty, was derived only from the great estates which he had 
purchased in Macedon. As a boy, he was made a prisoner and slave 
by the Bulgarians; but, after many surprising turns of fortune, arriving 
at Constantinople, he rose into favor at court, and at last attained the 
imperial cnjvvn itself. His reign was signalized by the Christianization 
of Bulgaria, an event of lasting importance. Though no general him- 
self, Basil had the talent to discern and employ military talent in others; 
and his armies gained great victories over the Saracens, whom they ex- 
pelled from the Italian peninsula, though not from Sicily. Basil I. 
reigned A. D. 807-886. 

6. Basil II. was born in the imperial palace at Constantinople A. D. 
958, and came to the throne A. D. 976, in partnership with his younger 
brother, Constantlne. Constantine, however, was idle and luxurious, 
while Basil bore all the burdens of a reign troubled by many wars, both 
civil and foreign. His sister Theophania was the wife of Otho II., Era • 
peror of the West (^322), but Basil had need to light against his brother- 
in-law no less than against the Arabs and Bulgarians. The powerful 
kingdom of the latter was overthrown by a series of conflicts extend- 
ing over 30 years. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE SARACENS. 




Saracens. 



ROM the sandy deserts of Arabia 
a power had now arisen, which 
threatened to subdue and govern 
the whole extent of the Roman 
dominion. Moham'med/ an Ara- 
bian camel-driver, in his journeys 
from Mecca to Damascus, met 
travelers from all nations. He 
had the wit to perceive that all 
the old religions were dead, while 
the Christian church was weakened 
and divided by the war against 
images; and he conceived the bold 
idea of replacing all the creeds by 

the worship of One God, of whom he himself was to be 

the prophet. 

297. His own tribe, however, were so angry at his pre- 
tensions, that they vowed to kill the self-appointed prophet. 

He fled to Medina, where he soon had a pow- 
erful party; and from this flight (Hegira) his 
followers still date their history. Within seven years, all 
Arabia submitted to be not only taught, but governed by 
Mohammed. He claimed to have received from the Arch- 
angel Gabriel a volume containing the decrees of God. 
These he made known only in fragments to his disciples, 
who wrote them on palm-leaves or on bits of bone. After 
his death they were collected and published in the Koran. 

298. He now commenced a wonderful career of con- 
quest, A. I). 629. All who would not believe in his 



A. D. 622. 



SARACENS IN THE WEST. 1 79 

mission were subjected to tribute or death. The bravery 
of his followers was sharpened by religious zeal. They 
were told that the moment of e\ery man's death is written 
in the Book of f'ate. At that moment he will fall dead, 
wherever he may be ; until it comes, he is safe in the 
fiercest storm of battle. 

299. In less than a hundred years the successors of Mo- 
hammed had conquered Persia, Syria, Egypt, northern 
Africa, and Spain. Alexandria was twice re-taken by the 
Greek armies and fleets, after it had submitted to the 
Moslem force, but it was twice re-captured, and its library, 
containing inestimable treasures of ancient literature, was 
destroyed. Constantinople was more fortunate. It was 
twice besieged by the Moslem, once for seven years 
(A. D. 668-675), ^"<J again for thirteen months; but it 
was saved by Greek Fire, an explosive liquid, whose com- 
position — of naphtha, sulphur, and pitch — was then known 
only to the Byzantines. 

300. The great battle that gave Spain to the Saracens, 
was fought at Xeres, on the Guadalete.- A. D. 711. It 
lasted seven days; but at length King Rod'erick was put 
to flight, and the Mohammedans, in a few months, over- 
ran the whole peninsula. Prince Pelay'o, with a few brave 
Goths, retreated to the mountains of Asturias, and kept 
ahve the Christian power, which grew, in time, to be the 
kingdom of Si)ain. Multitudes of Moslems, from Syria and 
Arabia, flocked into the country. Their victorious forces 
crossed the Pyrenees, and conquered a great part of south- 
ern France. They meant to subdue the northern shores 
of the Mediterranean as they had the southern, and make 
the Saracen Empire as extensive as that of Augustus or 
Trajan. 

301. But a great power had now arisen in France. The 
descendants of Clovis (§ 287) had lost character and 
energy, so that for a hundred years they had no better 



l8o MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

name in history than that of do-nothings and idiots. Their 
authority was in the hands of the Mayors of the Palace, a 
succession of able officers who ruled both kingdom and 
king. Charles Martel, one of the greatest of these mayors, 
mustered all the German tribes to meet the Moslem hosts 
who were advancing for the conquest of France. 

302. The decisive battle was fought, for several days, 

on a plain between Tours and Poitiers. The 
■ "^' Saracens had better armor, and the confidence 
derived from a century of almost uninterrupted victories. 
The Germans had greater personal strength, and they were 
fighting for home and faith. At length the Arab ranks 
were broken, their general was slain, and they stole away 
in the night, leaving their camp, rich with the plunder of 
southern Europe, to reward the Franks. 

303. Within a few years, the Saracen Empire was divided 
among three families : The Onuni'ades, who had hitherto 
ruled the whole, lost all but Spain ; the descendants of 
A'li, the son-in-law and first convert of Mohammed, ob- 
tained Persia, Egypt, and Mauretania; while the Abbas' sides ^ 
descendants of the Prophet's uncle, ruled the rest of the 
Saracen dominion, from their capital, Bagdad, on the 
Tigris. The Abbasside sovereign was called the caliph, 
or successor of Mohammed ; and was the religious head 
of Islam, as well as the ruler of the empire. 

304. The first rude era of conquest was succeeded by 
a brilliant period of intellectual progress. The Arabs be- 
came the teachers of Europe in botany, chemistry, and 
medicine. From Samarcand to Cordova,'^ the capital of 
Spain, their great cities were enriched by libraries and 
colleges, and adorned with Moorish architecture. Ha'roun 

al Rasch'id^ and his successor Alma'mun, ^ 

^ ^^ invited learned men from all nations to 

their magnificent court at Bagdad, and, by their orders, 

the writings of the Greek jihilosophers were translated into 



SARACEN PIRATES. 



Arabic. Western Europe was now sunk in comparative 
ignorance, and the few great scholars had to seek instruc- 
tion at the schools of the Saracens. 

305. But the Saracens were not all learned or refined. 
Mohammedan freebooters conquered Sicily and Crete, and 
made the latter their slave-market, where captives from 
all the Mediterranean countries were bought and sold. 
All the Sicilian ports were nests of pirates, who preyed 
upon Italy, and even twice attacked Rome. The gold 
and silver in the churches were carried 

, ^ ^, ■ 11, A. D. 846, 847. 

away, but the city was saved by the energy 
of its Pope, Leo IV. In honor of him, the quarter of 
Rome where the popes live, has ever since been called 
the Leonine City. Thessalonica, the second city of the 
Eastern Empire, was taken by the Saracens; and, after 
most of its people had been massacred, 22,000 of its 
youth were sold into slavery, A. D. 904. 

On Maps 5 and 7, point out Arabia, Mecca, Medina, Xeres, Tours. 
Trace the Saracen conquests, actual and intended. Point out the 
three Saracen kingdoms. Bagdad. Samarcand. Cordova. Thessa- 
lonica. 

Read Irving's " Mahomet and his Successors," Finlay's " History 
of the Byzantine Empire," Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," and South- 
ey's "Roderick," with the notes. 

NOTES. 

1. As the founder of one of the most widely diffused religions on the 
globe — one which, by its vigor and fierce fanaticism, seems able, even 
now, to involve all Europe in war — Mohammed must always afibrd an 
interesting subject for study. Until lately, he has been most commonly 
regarded in Christendom as not only the teacher of a false system of 
belief, but a conscious and cunning impostor. But, when we consider 
how real and lasting were the results of his actions, we can hardly 
doubt that he, at least, believed In himself. "A false man found a re- 
ligion ! " says Carlyle. "Why! a false man can not even build a brick 
wall." Through his long career, and even in tlie hour of death, Mo- 
hammed never betrayed the weakness which attenrls intentional de- 
ception. But he was of a peculiarly excitable, nervous constitution, 
subject to visions and other illusions of a powerful imagination; and 
his visions took their form from the strong conviction of his waking 
hours that his pagan countrymen needed a purer faith. At first he was 
tolerant of those who differed from him. " If you meet an unbeliever, 
say to him, You have your religion, I have mine," was his direction to 



1 82 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



1 



his followers. But, after his enforced flight to Medina, he changed his 
plans. " The sword," said he, " is the key of heaven and of hell ; a drop 
of blood shed in the cause of God, or a night spent in arms, is of more 
avail than two months of fasting and prayer; wlioever falls in battle, 
his sins are forgiven him; and, at the day of judgment, the loss of his 
limbs shall be supplied by the wings of cherubim." The oniy choice 
oflfered to unbelievers was "the Koran, tribute, or tlie sword." 

Mohammed's first convert was his generous and faithful wife, Kha- 
dijah; and for years his only adherents were his household and intimate 
friends. His uncle, Abu Talib, though refusing to regard him as a prophet, 
was his firm friend and protector; while All, the son of Abu Talib, was 
his cousin's bravest and most devoted adherent. For his courage and 
lofty spirit, Ali was called the " Lion of God." He married Mohammed's 
only (laughter, Fatima, and became, in later years, the founder of the 
sect of Fatiniites, or Shiites, to which the Persians still belong. Among 
other adherents, was Abu Bekr, the first successor of Mohammed, and 
Omar, the prophet's kinsman and second successor, the concjueror of 
Jerusalem, and builder of the mosque which bears his name upon the 
site of Solomon's Temple. 

Seven years from the Hegira, Mecca was taken by storm, and Mo- 
hammed's late bitter enemies received him as their prophet and king. 
" What mercy can you expect," said he, " from the man whom you have 
so deenly wronged?" "We trust to the generosity of our kinsman," 
was the reply. "And you shall not trust in vain," rejoined the con- 
queror, "go; you are safe; you are free." 

After four years more of almost constant victories, Mohammed was 
seized with a'violent fever. "When he perceived that his end was near, 
supported by the arms of Ali and anotlier relative, he went into the 
mosque and asked publicly if he had injured any one;— if so, he was 
ready to make full amends, or to suffer himself what he had inflicted 
on others. As no one answered, he asked again if he owed any man 
any thing. A voice replied, " Yes; to me, three draclims of silver." The 
prophet ordered the money to be paid, and thanked his creditor that 
he made his complaint now, instead of deferring it till the day of judg- 
ment." He died on his (33d or 65th birthday, iii the eleventh year of 
the Hegira, A. D. 032. 

His followers, led by Omar, refused to believe that he was dead, but 
Abu Bekr quieted the" tumult. "Is it JNIoliammed," said he, "or the 
God of Mohammed that you worship? God liveth for. ever and ever; 
but Mohammed, though his prophet and apostle, was mortal like our- 
selves, and, in dying, has but fulttlled his own prediction." 

Abu Bekr was the first Caliph, i. c, successor of Mohammed; the term 
is now applied to the religious head of Islam, and has been assumed 
in late years by the Sultan at Constantinople. 

Mohammed named no successor, nor did he even direct how the 
choice of one should be made. Strife soon arose, therefore, between his 
near kinsmen, led at first by Ali, his son-in-law, — and the family of 
Onuncyah^ to which Othman, the third caliph, belonged. After the 
death of Khadijah, the prophet had married Ayesha, daughter of Abu 
Bekr. When Ali had gained the throne by the murder of Othman, 
Ayesha took up arms against him. and the first civil war in Islam 
began with the battle of Bosrah, A. D. 656. Ali was victorious, and 
reigned four years, but he was then (A. D. C60) murdered in his turn, 
and Moawiyeh, the second Oramiad Caliph, established his govern- 
ment at Damascus, where he and his fourteen descendants maintained 
the supremacy of their house for 89 years. The last of them was de- 
throned by a descendant of Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed, who gained 
a great battle near Arbela (§162) on the river Zab, and founded the dy- 
nasty of the Abbassidcs. 

The descendants of Ommeyah were now hunted to death with 
atrocious barbarities. Only one escaped— the young prince Abderrah- 
man— who wandered from one hiding-place to another, through north- 
ern Africa into Spain, where he reestablished, at Cordova, the brilliant 
dynastj"^ of the Ominiades. 

The two sons of Ali and Fatima came to untimely ends; but their 
descendants, in a somewhat irregular manner, kept possession of Per- 
sia, Kgypt, and northern Africa. They were despised for their heretical 
doctrines by the orthodox Moslems or " Soonnitis," and to this day 
their folhjwers are known as tShccah, iShiUes, or Separatists. 



NOTES. 183 

. 2. The kingdom of the Visigoths in Spain (g? 279, 288) was weakened 
during its later years by the enmities of two rival royal families, so 
that it became a comparatively easy prey to the invaders. Report 
says that Count Julian, a powerful lord among the Visigoths, and 
commandant of the African fortress of Ceuta, enraged by an injury 
received from King Roderick, invited the Saracens into Spain. 

" Desperate apostate ! on the Moors he called ; 
And, like a cloud of locusts, whom the South 
Wafts from the plains of wasted Africa, 
The Mussulraen upon Iberia's shore 
Descend. A countless multitude they came; 
Syrian, Moor, Saracen, Greek renegade, 
Persian and Copt and Tartar, in one bond 
Of erring faith conjoined,— stronj; in tlie youth 
And heat of zeal,— a dreadful brotlicrhood 
In whom all turbulent vices were let loose. . . . 
Then fell the kingdom of the Goths; th<'ir hour 
Was come, and Vengeance, long witliluld, went loose. 
Famine and Pestilence had wastnl them. 
And Treason, like an old and eating ^ore. 
Consumed the bones and sinews of their strength, 
And, worst of enemies, their sins were armed 
Against them. Yet the scepter from their hands 
Passed not away inglorious, nor was shame 
Left for their children's lasting heritage. 
Eight summer days, from morn till latest eve, 
The fatal tight endured, till perfidy 
Prevailing to tlicir overthrow, they sank 
Defeated, not clislionored. On the banks 
Of ('lu■,^■sus, H(h1c lick's royal car was found. 
His l»altle horse Orelio, and that helm 
Whose horns, amid the thickest of the fray 
Eminent, had marked his presence. Did the stream 
Receive him with the undistinguished dead. 
Christian and Moor, who clogged its course that day? 
So thought the conqueror; and from that day forth, 
Memorial of his perfect victory. 
He bade the river bear the name of Joy." 

—Sotithey, "-Roderick, the Last of the Goths." 

Pelayo was a cousin of Roderick, and ancestor of subsequent kings 
of Spain. 

3. Cordova, founded, iirobably, by the Carthaginians, was taken by 
the Romans, B. C. \rt2, and bt'came the seat of the first Roman colony 
in Spain. In the war between Csesar and the sons of Pompey (ji235), 
Cordova took part witli the latter, and was ininished after Csesar's 
victory at Munda, by the massacre of 2(),(kio of its jicojile. It was the 
home of Seneca (§250), and of many other distinguished Romans. Under 
the Goths it was still an important city, and Hosius, its bishop, was 

8 resident of the Council of Nice (§267). After the Saracen conquests, 
ordova became the capital of the Moorish dominion in Spain, and a 
Beat of luxury and learning. 

4. Haroun al Raschid (Aaron the Just), the most splendid and pow- 
erful of the Abbassides, reigned from A. D. 786 to 809. "About S04 he 
waged a successful war against the Byzantine emperor, Nicephorus, 
whom he compelled to pay tribute. He is chiefly renowned as the 
principal hero of the 'Arabian Nights Entertainment.' " His excessive 
cruelty to the people of the eastern empii'e, whose lands he ravaged, 
and his inurder of the Barmecides, his own intimate friends and faith- 
ful servants, make us doubt whether his surname of the Just was de- 
servedly bestowed. 

5. Almamun, son of the preceding, conquered his elder brother, and 
reigned from 813 to 833. His court at Bagdad was the great center of 
learning for the world; and his reign was signalized by the first accu- 
rate measurement of the earth's orbit. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE WESTERN EMPIRE RESTORED. 




Priest and Paladin. 



^^^ESIDES preventing a Saracen conquest 
of Europe, the victory of Charles 
Martel, at Tours, had another resuh 
ahiiost equally important. It caused 
the Frankish chief to be regarded as 
the champion of western Chris- 
tendom, and the natural ally of 
the Pope. While the exarchate 
of Africa was falling into the 
hands of the Saracens, that of 
Ravenna was losing most of its 
power in Italy. During the war 
for the Images (§294), the Ro- 
mans declared themselves a re- 
public, with the Pope at their 
head, and destroyed the fleet which the Emperor of the 
East sent to compel their submission. But the Lombards 
(§289) were now masters of a great part of Italy, and 
threatened Rome. Pope Greg'ory III. sent an urgent 
appeal for help to the great mayor, Charles Martel, who, 
by conquering Burgundy, Provence, and Aquitaine, had 
extended his power over all modern France. 

307. Charles died too soon to fulfill the wishes of Greg- 
ory; but his son Pe'pin twice invaded Italy with great 
armies, and conquered 22 cities from the Lombard king, 
who, moreover, had to resign one third of all his treasures 
to the Pope. Pepin was already crowned King of the 
Franks;^ he now received the title of "■patrician,'" with 
(184) 



CHARLES THE GREAT. 185 



almost the power of the ancient consuls at Rome. Money 
was coined and justice administered in his name, and the 
election of the popes, by the clergy of their diocese, was 
subject to his api^roval. 

308. Pepin's son Charles was one of the greatest charac- 
ters in history, whether considered as sovereign, lawmaker, 
or military chief By the Pope's invitation he, too, crossed 
the Alps and made war with the Lombards. Pavia, their 
capital, was taken after fifteen months' siege ; their king 
and his family were imprisoned for the rest of their lives; 
and Charles received the iron crown, which made him 
King of Italy. He also extended his protection to the 
Gothic Christians in Spain, and added the land between 
the Pyrenees and the Ebro to his dominion. 

309. In pursuance of his plan for civilizing and Chris- 
tianizing all Europe, he waged war for 33 

years with the heathen Saxons and Slavonians ' ' ' ''^^ °^' 
in the north and east. At this time there was not a city 
in northern Germany. Many towns were founded by 
Charles, as centers not only of trade but of intelligence 
and Christianity. Every town had its bishop, and every 
bishopric and monastery maintained a college. Libraries 
were founded, and copies of the great writings of antiquity 
were distributed among them. The old ballads which told 
of the brave deeds of German heroes were now first col- 
lected by Charles' order. 

310. Before the Saxons were thoroughly reduced to sub- 
mission, the Bavarians revolted against the Frankish power, 
and called the Avars to their aid. These were a Tartar 
tribe, of the same race with Attila's Huns (§280), and 
had been encamped more than 200 years in what is 
now known as Hungary. Not only was Bavaria subdued, 
but, after a long and fierce contest, the Avars also sub- 
mitted to Charles. The spoils of Europe and Asia, which 
had been laid up for centuries in their fortified camp, 



1 86 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

went to enrich their conquerors. The long eastern frontier 
of the Frankish dominion, extending from the Adriatic to 
the Bakic, was now guarded by chiefs who were thence 
known as margraves, or Counts of the Border. 

311. On Christmas day, A. D. 800, as Charles was pray- 
ing in the church of St. Peter, at Rome, the Pope placed 
upon his head the crown of the Caesars, saluting him as 
"Charles Augustus, crowned of God, great and peace- 
giving Emperor of the Romans." The throne of Constan- 
tinople had lately been usurped by Irene, a most unnatural 
mother, who had put out her son's eyes to unfit him for 
reigning, and had then thrust herself into his place. It 
was now thought that Old Rome might take back the 
importance which Constantine had given to the New 
(§268), and, as Constantine VI., the blinded emperor, 
was sixty-seventh in order from the first Augustus, Charles 
was numbered sixty-eighth as his successor. 

312. Charles the (ireat was recognized as the head of 
Christendom, not only l)y Goths and Saxons in the West, 
but by the caliph Haroun nl Raschid (§304), who sent 
him, among other gifts, the keys of the Holy Sepulcher 
at Jerusalem. It was, in fact, the great aim of Charles' 
life to give to his whole dominion that security and peace 
which the Roman world had enjoyed under the best of 
the emperors. Instead of the armed assemblies, which 
had transacted the affairs of the German tribes at the 
March- and May-fields, diets were now instituted, in which 
the bishops had an important part; and the discussions 
Avere in Latin, so that members from all nations might 
understand. 

313. Charles delighted in the conversation of learned 
men, and continued his own studies all his life, with 
their advice. Wherever he might be, in court or camp, 
in the ancient cities, or in the wildernesses of northern 
Europe, he was surrounded by his learned friends; and 



THE TREATY OF VERDUN. 1 87 



his house or tent was a school for younger princes, who 
sought his instruction in the arts of war and government. 
With the majesty of the Ccesar, he combined the simple 
habits of the Prankish chief. His long and 
incessantly active reign of 46 years went far • ■ 7 m- 
to transform the Dark Ages into order and enlightenment; 
but, unhappily, his imperial genius did not descend to his 
sons, and the succeeding ages were darker than ever. 

314. Louis the Mild, or the Pious, was the only surviving 
son of Charlemagne, and was already crowned as emperor 
at his father's death, A. U. 814. He shared the imperial 
dignity with his eldest son Lothaire', giving kingdoms to 
his other sons; but they, dissatisfied with their portions, 
made war against each other, and even against their father. 
After Louis' death, a terrible battle between the brothers 
at Pontenaye was followed by the Treaty 

of Verdun,^ which divided the dominions of " '*^' 

Charles the Great among his three grandsons. The emperor 
Lothaire had Italy, and a long, narrow territory reaching 
from the Mediterranean to the German Ocean, including 
the two capitals, Rome and Aix.='- Louis, henceforth called 
the German, had the countries north and east of the Rliine, 
while Latin Prance, west of the Rhone and Saone, was 
allotted to Charles the Bald. 

315. Por more than a hundred years the Empire could 
scarcely be said to exist, though its titles were worn, in 
turn, by all three branches of Charlemagne's family. The 
real power rested in the great dukes and margraves, or 



"•■■"The "Middle Kingdom" of Lothaire fell apart, under his sons, 
into its three natural divisions: Italy, Burgundy, and Lorraine. 
The latter was soon divided : Lower Lorraine including the Nether- 
lands south of the Rhine, while Upper Lorraine continued to be a 
great duchy on the borders of France and Germany. Burgundy was 
likewise divided into two kingdoms, Upper and Lower, the latter 
having a new name, Provence. 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



marquises, who were the defenders of Europe against a 
host of enemies. The Magyars, a new race of Huns, were 
over-running the continent from the north-east; the Med- 
iterranean swarmed with Saracen pirates (§305), and the 
Northmen, wild sea-rovers from beyond the Bakic, were 
ravaging all the Atlantic coasts. During these calamities, 
those who were bravest and ablest naturally rose into 
power. Thus the counts of Anjou and Paris on the west, 
the dukes of Saxony, Thuringia, Franconia, Bavaria, and 
Suabia on the east, the marquises of Friuli, Spoleto, and 
Tuscany in Italy, were really greater princes than those 
whom they acknowledged as their lords. 

316. The Feudal System was now in force through- 
out the Western Empire; /. <'. , knights and nobles held 
their lands on condition of military service and homage 
to the chief who had granted them. "Great vassals" 
held directly from the king or emperor; but they had 
vassals under them, until the whole land was parceled 
out in "knight's fees," .some of them barely large enough 
to hold a castle. When a king made war, he summoned 
his vassals, who in turn summoned theirs; and, when all 
met at the appointed place, the great army was made up 
of a cluster of little armies. The great lords vied with 
each other in the multitude of their retainers; the knights, 
in their costly armor and skillful horsemanship, and all in 
their bravery in the fight. When there was no real war, 
mock combats, called tilts and tourneys, were often held, 
to cultivate and display their skill. 

317. The ceremony by which feudal obligation was ac- 
knowledged, was called homage, because the vassal, kneel- 
ing before his king or lord, vowed to be his man in life 
and limb. In return, the chief was bound to protect his 
vassal against injustice or violence, and to punish any who 
injured him. The poor people who cultivated the lands, 
and were given away with them, had no rights except 



I 



THE HOL Y ROMAN EMPIRE. 189 



what humanity would concede — that of being protected 
with their famihes in time of danger. 

318. A king sometimes did homage to another king for 
lands within his dominion; the kings of the Franks even 
did homage to the abbot of St. Denis for their county of 
Paris. The kings of Naples, as we shall see, held their 
whole realm as a "fief of St. Peter;" and some of the 
popes insisted that all kingdoms ought to be so held. 

319. The "feudal tenure," as it is called, gradually 
took the place of all other holdings. Absolute owners of 
land were glad to put themselves under the protection of 
some powerful lord, especially of the great abbots, whose 
lands were more secure and better tilled than any others. 
So it came to pass that the Church owned half the terri- 
tories of western Europe. 

320. After the descendants of Charlemagne had proved 
unfit to reign, several great chiefs in Italy and Provence 
fought for the imperial crown until the Pope called an- 
other king out of Germany to end their disputes. This 
was O'tho the Great, who was crowned at Rome, A. D. 
962. His father, Henry the Fowler,^ had been duke of 
Saxony, and was elected king of the Germans. In many 
fierce battles he had subdued the pagan Wends and the 
Magyars, and had planted in the eastern wilderness many 
towns, to be centers of orderly life and strongholds against 
the barbarians. 

321. The crown of the '■'■Holy Roman Empire,''' as it 
now began to be called, was bestowed, for more than 800 
years upon the kings chosen by the German princes. 
They were first crowned at Aix as Emperors-Elect, but 
could not bear the titles of Caesar and Augustus until they 
had received the imperial diadem from the hands of the 
Pope. They also assumed the iron crown of Italy at 
Milan, and some of the emperors wore that of Burgundy 
at Aries (§314 note). 



190 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

322. One third part of Italy still obeyed the emperors 
of the East, whose forces Otho and his son vainly attempted 
to expel. Otho II. married a Greek princess;'* and their 

son, Otho III.,"' who was crowned emperor at 
' ^^ sixteen, was the "wonder of the world" for 

his brilliant genius and his high aims in governing. But 
he died in the very dawn of his manhood, and the bright 
promise passed away. The choice of the German princes 
now fell upon Henry II., duke of Bavaria, and, after his 
death, upon Con'rad II., chief of the Franconian line. 

323. Under Henry III., son of Conrad, the power of 

the empire reached its height. He rescued 

A. U. 1046-1056. ,^ ^ 1 T r 1 1 

Rome from the disgrace 01 several unworthy 
popes, who had used their high office for selfish and corrupt 
purposes. Setting aside three who laid claim to the dignity, 
he appointed a better man than any of them; and the 
emperors thenceforth claimed the right to nominate the 
popes. 

324. Henry HI. died suddenly, A. D. 1056, when his 
only son was but a child. While the little prince was 
growing to manhood, Hirdebrand,"a Tuscan monk, gained 
great power in the Church, and became almost as important 
a figure in the panorama of those Dark Ages as Charlemagne 
hmiself. He, too, had a plan for bringing order out of the 
misery and confusion of the times — to subject all ranks 
and classes to the absolute authority of the popes. As the 
vicegerents of God upon earth, he taught that they had 
the right to crown or depose kings at their pleasure. 

325. About the time that Henry IV. attained his majority, 
A. T). 1073, Hildebrand became Pope Gregory VII. Then 
began a violent contest between the two rulers of Christen- 
dom. The emperor summoned a Diet at Worms, which 
deposed the pope; and the i)ope convened a Council at 
Rome, which dethroned and excommunicated the emperor. 
These great revolutions, it will be understood, were only 



HENRY IV. AT CANOSSA. 191 



accomplished on parchment; but the war of words soon 
became an affair of hard blows. Henry was a man of 
proud and passionate nature; the pope was equally bold 
and resolute, and on his side were enlisted nearly all the 
intellect and learning of the time, as well as the sympathy 
of the common people, in whose rank he had been born. 
At his command the German bishops and abbots declared 
against Henry ; and the Saxons, who were angry at the 
passing of the crown from their ducal line to the Franconian 
(§322), broke out into revolt. In this desperate case, 
Henry crossed the Alps in winter and stood barefoot in the 
snow for three days at the gates of the Castle of Canossa' 
before he was admitted to kiss the feet of Gregory and 
humbly confess his faults. Even this did not save him ; 
a rival emperor was chosen; and though Henry defeated 
him, and outlived Pope Gregory by twenty years, yet all 
his life was embittered l)y the malice of his enemies. 
His sons rebelled against him, with the aid of the popes, 
and at last he died of a broken heart, in poverty and 
humiliation. 

Trace, on Map 7, the coiujuests of Charles Martel. Of Charle- 
magne. Tlie di\isions made liy the Treaty of Verdun. C)f Lothaire's 
Middle Kingdom. The great fiefs mentioned in ^315. Point out 
Aix-la-Chapelle, Aries. Milan, Rome. 

Read Book IV of Parke Godwin's History of France; Pryce's 
•'Holy Roman Empire;" and a chapter on the P"eudal System in 
Hallam's <' Middle Ages." 

NOTES. 

1. The first appearance of the name "Frankss" in history is said to 
have been in a rude camp-song, sung by Aurelian's soldiers (§202) as 
they marched out of Rome on their way to tlie Persian wars: 

" MiUe Sarmatas, mille Francos, semel et semel occidimus; 
Mille mille mille mille mille Persas quaerimus." 

It merely meant /?-ee, and designated the unconquered German tribes 
on the middle and lower Rhine. These tribes were in two principal 
groups: the Salians, west of the Yssel ; and the Ripuarians, or bank- 
defenders, on either side of the Rhine above and below Cologne. The 
Emperor Julian admired their brave and indejiendent spirit; after his 



192 MEDIMVAL HISTORY. 

time many Franks took servit-c in tlie Roman armies, and their chiefs 
often filled high offices, botli civil and military. 

Clevis was chief of the Salian Franks; the yet greater family of the 
Carlovingians, wlio succeeded his, seem to have been of the Ripuarian 
group. Both had important parts to play in European history. 

Wlien Cliarlemagne came to the throne, the Franks veere already 
the acknowledged heads of all the German tribes excepting the Sax- 
ons, and were thus the champions of western Christendom against 
bot!i the Saracens on the south-west, and the worshipers of Odin on 
the north-east. The Saracen Inroads had been cftcctually checked by 
the great victory of Charles Martel; the Saxons, the only remaining 
upholders of Gernian heathenism, gave him occujiation enough for the 
greater part of his long reign. It was easy to defeat them in many 
successive battles, but, as there was no responsible head of the whole 
people, one chief naturally disregarded engagements which another 
had made. Charlemagne was, therefore, often recalled from his cam- 
paigns beyond the Alps or the Pyrenees, to quell some fierce outl)reak of 
the Saxons. Their greatest hero and leader was Witikiiul, called "the 
Great," who had married a sister of the king of Denmark, and was 
aided by him in his wars with the Franks. But, after the massacre 
of Verdun, in which 4,.50(i Saxons were destroyed, and a subsequent 
defeat near the river Hase, even Witikind submitted, and was bap- 
tized in A. D. 88.5, with many of his followers. Hundreds of irrecon- 
cilable Saxons fled to the Baltic peninsulas, and stirred up tlie north- 
men (§^326-328) to many attacks tiv sea upon tlie Prankish dominions. 

Charlemagne regarded liimscll— and more csijccially after his coro- 
nation at Rome -as divinely appointed to establisli and maintain or- 
der and justice in his great dominion. It is interesting, in this point 
of view, to know that his favorite book— often read to him at his 
meals— was St. Augustine's "City of God,"— that noble work in which 
the Bishop of Hippo reassured his followers, during the calamitous 
times (^283), when tlie Roman empire was falling under the assaults 
of Goths and Vandals, by predictions of the new Kingdom of Riglit- 
eousness and Peace, whicli Christ had come to establisli. 

The Encyclopcedia Britannica V. 403, says: "Thus, from the Eider 
to Sicily, and from the F^bro to the Theiss, the will of Charles was su- 
preme; while over the Slavonic tribes, as far as the Oder or even the 
Vistula, his influence was felt in no feelile way. The genius and en- 
ergy of one man had succeeded in arresting the progress of political 
disintegration, and, in the interest of culture and constructive order, 
in welding into one great monarchy all the races of continental Ger- 
many. . . . Charles was far more than an ordinary coiKpieror. He 
displayed not less energy in the internal organization and administra- 
tion of his kingdom than in foreign artairs. The whole empire was di- 
vided into districts, presided over by counts, who were responsible for 
their good government; while in the exjiosed frontiers or marches, other 
counts (Markgrafen) were stationed with forces capable of defending 
them. . . . Two great assemblies were held every year— the Champ- 
de-.Mai (May-field), which was a kind of nationar muster, essentially 
military, and another in autumn, of the hiiih citticials, of a deliberative 
and advisory nature. In tlie ('(ipi/iilarirs (edicts issued as the necessities 
of the eniitire required) in his endeavors to promote education, in his 
organization of the church and the definitive institution of tithes, in 
the unsuccessful attempt to join the Danube and the Rhine by a canal, 
he gave proof of the noblest desire to conserve and propagate the cult- 
ure of former times." 

2. Germany dates her national existence from the Treaty of Verdun. 
Eastern or Teutonic was then forever separated from Western ov Latin 
Franct\ which, in later times, gained exclusive possession of the name, 
tlie heart of the Frankish dominions being known as Franconia. The 
oaths taken respectively by the armies of Louis the German, and his 
brother Charles, show that the two languages were already distinct. 
The Frankisli conquerors of Gaul were largely Latinized l)y intercourse 
with the former subjects of the Cjesars; and, "while the soldiers of Louis 
swore allegiance in Old German, the oath of Charles' army was almost 
equally like Latin, Proven9al and modern French. The Teutonic and 
Roman elements in European society and speech were from that mo- 
ment separate. — Manual of Afidiicral and Modern Histm-y, p. 39. 



MAP No. VII. 



EMPERORS OF ROME AND KINGS OF 
THE GERMANS. 



Charlemagne A. D 


800. 


House of Hapsburg. 




Louis the Mild 

Lothaire 

Louis II., the German 

Charles II., the Bald 

Charles III., the Fat 876 


814. 
840. 
855. 
875. 
-888. 


Rudolph I. 
Adolph of Nassau 
Albert of Hapsburg 
Henry VII. 
Louis V. 


A. D 
1308 


1273 
1292 
1298. 
-1313- 
1330- 






Charles IV., of Luxe 


mburg 


1347 


Holy Roman Einpv-e 




Wenceslaus 
Rupert 




1378. 
1400. 


Otho the Great, of Saxony 


962. 


Sigismund 




1410, 


Otho II., 


973- 


Albert II. 




1438. 


Otho III., 


983- 


Frederic III. 




1440. 


Henry 11., of Bavaria 


1002. 


Maximilian I. 




1493- 


Conrad II., of Franconia 


1024. 


Charles V. 




1519. 


Henry III., " 


1039. 


Ferdinand I. 




1558. 


Henry IV., " 


1056. 


Maximilian II. 




1564. 


Henry V., " 


1 106. 


Rudolph II. 




1576. 


Lothaire II., of Saxony 


1125. 


Matthias 
Ferdinand II. 
Ferdinand III. 




1612. 
1619. 
1637. 


Hotise of Hohenstaiifen. 


Leopold I. 




1658. 






Joseph I. 




1705. 


Conrad lU. 


1 138; 


Charles VI. 




1711. 


Frederic I. Barbarossa 


1152 


Charles VII. 




1742. 


Henry VI. 


1191. 


Francis I. 




1745- 


Philip, Otho IV. 


1 198. 


Joseph II. 




1765. 


Frederic II. 


1212. 


Leopold II. 




1790. 


Conrad IV. 


1250. 1 


Francis II. 




1792. 


WiUiam of Holland 1 250-1 256. ' 


Empire overthrown 


1806. 



NOTES. 193 

3. Tlip headship of the German nations had now passed from the 
Franks to tlie Saxons. On his deatli-bed, tlie Emperor Conrad I:, though 
a Franlc, and a former opponent of Dulte Henry on the battle-field, 
recommended liim to the German princes for tlieir chief. Tlie pagan 
Slavonians were now overrunning the north-eastern borders of the 
empire. Henry wrested from them the Mark of Brandenburg, which 
became, in after ages, the nucleus of the kingdom of Prussia. He sub- 
sequently gained a decisive victory over the still heathen Magyars, at 
Merseburg, in Saxony. He reigned A. D. 919-936. 

4. This was Theophano, or Theophania (^322), daughter of Romanus 
II. and step-daughter of Nicephorus Phocas, Emperor of the East. She 
brought to the German court much of the musical and literary culture 
which still reigned at Constantinople; and her son happily combined 
the best qualities of Greek and Teutonic genius. 

5. Otho III. was only three years old at his father's death, but he 
was sixteen when Pope Gregory V. placed the imperial crown upon his 
head at Rome in A. D. 996. Rome was still ruled by Crescentius, a fac- 
tious noble, who, taking advantage of the real miseries of the age and 
the blind enthusiasm of the people, had obtained the title of consul 
(§ 182), with supreme power, in A. D. 980. He was defeated by the com- 
bined forces of the Pope and the eniperoi', and was beheaded by Otho's 
command in 998. Stephania, the widow of Crescentius, desiring to avenge 
his death, is said to have first won the entire confidence and affection 
of the young emperor by her charms, and then to have destroyed his 
life by poison. 

6. Though of humble birth, Hildebrand had acquired the highest in- 
fluence by his talents, energy, and zeal, so that even kings submitted 
their plans to his decision. Five successive popes, " Leo, Victor, Stephen, 
Nicholas, and Alexander, had each been indebted to his authority for 
the pontificate, and to his counsels for the policy with which it had 
been administered," when the spontaneous acclamations ol the people, 
echoing, as was then believed, the voice of St. Peter himself, declared 
him raised to the highest dignity in the church. The two great objects 
which he succeeded in securing against the bitterest opposition, were 
the celibacy of the clergy, and the investiture of bishops and abbots by 
the popes instead of by secular princes. ... 

His reconciliation with Henry was only apparent and transient. As 
he refused to bestow the imperial crown, without which Henry's elec- 
tion by the German princes would have little effect (§321) Henry set 
up a rival pope, Guibert, who crowned him at Rome, while Gregory 
took refuge in the castle at St. Angelo. ^ ,, ,. , ^ 

But Robert Guiscard (?331), the Norman king of southern Italy, ad- 
vanced to the rescue, an(l the emperor made a hasty retreat. His ad- 
herents in Rome kept up the strife, and, in the pillage and conflagra- 
tion that followed, the imperial city suffered more than even frorn the 
Vandals. "Himself a voluntarv exile, Gregory sought in the castle of 
Salerno, and, under the protection of the Xoinians, the security he could 
no longer find among his own exasperated subjects." Worn out by anx- 
iety and toil, he recognized the approach of death. "He forgave and 
blessed and absolved his enemies, with the resolute exceptions ol the 
emperor and the anti-pope." His last words were: "1 have loved right- 
eousness and hated iniquity; and therefore I die in exile! | 

7. Canossa was the favorite residence of Matilda of Tuscany, known 
as "The (ireat Countess," who, for sixty-one years (A. D. 10.>l-lllo) alter 
her father's death,— first, in connection with her mother, Beatrice, and 
afterwards alone,— ruled a great portion of central and northern Italy. 
She is one of the most remarkable figures in that turbulent age. "1 hough 
she married Godfrey of Lorraine in her youth, and Guelph ot Bavaria 
in her more mature age," she kept her sovereign rights over her own 
dominions, and is chiefly noted for her devotion to the church. In 10// 
she made a reversionary grant of all her territories to the papal power 
She led her own armies to battle, and such were her acquirements that 
her orders were equally well understood by her Italian, French, and 
German soldiers, while they were intelligible to levies from almost 
every part of Europe. 

Hist.— 13. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE NORTHMEN. 





Danish Pirateb. 

HE last of the northern nations who con- 
quered a place in southern and western 
Europe were the natives of Denmark and 
the Scandinavian peninsula; but these were 
found superior to all the rest, excepting, perhaps, the 
Goths, in vigor of mind and body, and in their aptitude 
for civilized life. Their native land being too poor to 
support them all, multitudes of young Northmen sought 
their fortunes abroad. As early as the eighth century 
a large body of them passed overland to Constantinople, 
and enlisted in the guards of the emperor of the East. 

Successive bands of their countrymen, moving in 
the same direction, conquered the Slavic king- 
doms of Novgorod and Kiev, and became 
founders of the Russian Empire. Ru'ric was the first 
Norman ruler of Russia. Christianity was introduced by 



I 



327- 



A. D. 862. 



NORMAN SETTLEMENTS. 1915 



Greek missionaries, and, in A. D. 955, Queen Ol'ga* was 
baptized at Constantinople. Vlad'imir- the 

_, . II- -1 A. D. 980-1015. 

Great mcreased his empire by conquest, 
and civiHzed it by many churches and schools. Yar'oslav 
was a still greater benefactor, for he procured the transla- 
tion of the Holy Scriptures and many other books into the 
Slavonic language, and made the first Russian code of laws. 

328. Cireater numbers of the Northmen^ became sea- 
rovers, the terror of all western Europe. Wherever they 
landed, the smoking ruins of houses, churches, and mon- 
asteries marked their track. At first they only ravaged 
the coasts; then, as they grew bolder and more numerous, 
they established fortified camps near the mouths of the 
rivers, whence they pursued their depredations over a wide 
extent of country. At length their numbers and powers 
were so great that they settled themselves on extensive 
tracts of land, the inhabitants of which they had expelled 
or destroyed. Thus a great part of eastern England and 
north-western France became their permanent abode, and 
they now proved that extraordinary genius for order and 
good government which no one certainly would have 
expected of the terrible sea-robbers. 

329. One condition exacted by King Alfred^ -i^ in En- 
gland, from Gu'thrun, the Danish chief, and by King 
Charles, in France, from Rollo, was that both, with their 
principal followers, should become Christians. This they 
did with apparent good faith. The English Danes could 
not, however, prevent their pagan countrymen over the 
sea from trying their good fortune ; and, under the weak 
reign of Eth'elred II., they gained such power that Eng- 



•■■ Alfred, the West Saxon, A. D. 871 -901, was the best of the early 
English kings. By many years hard fighting, he reclaimed his king- 
dom from the Danes, and then civilized it by wise laws, schools, and 
books, which he either translated, or caused to be translated, from 
Greek and Latin. He is truly called Alfred THE Great. 



T96 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



land was added, for a time, to the Scandinavian Empire 
of Knut. 

330. The duchy of Normandy had, meanwhile, become 
the richest and best governed part of France. A succes- 
sion of able rulers was . descended from Rollo, and many 
beautiful cathedrals and abbey-churches expressed their zeal 
for the religion which they had so lately adopted. Their 
restless spirits and their new faith were ecjually indulged 
by pilgrimages, which, indeed, many western Christians 
undertook, but of which the Normans were especially fond. 
On their way to the tomb of our Lord, or the shrines of 
His saints and apostles, the Norman knights had their eyes 
wide open for any warlike adventures that might offer. 

331. In passing through southern Italy, they did not 
fail to remark the weakness and wealth of the Greek cities, 
which, though belonging to the Eastern Empire, were 
always exposed to the attacks of Saracens or Lombards. 
By taking sides with one party or the other, the Normans 
gained great power for themselves, and, at length, became 
masters of twelve cities, which they formed into a military 
republic. After a victory over the Pope's forces at Civ- 

itella, they declared themselves vassals of the 
'°^^ Church, and so gained his favor and protec- 
tion (§317). Under Robert Guiscard, their duke, they 
gradually drove out the Greek magistrates of the cities and 
conquered from the Lombards their last possession, thus 
making the Norman power supreme in southern Italy. At 
the same time Roger Guiscard was conquering Sicily* from 



*Of the NorniEins in Sicily, an English historian says: "No con- 
queror ever deserved better of the conquered. The noble island of 
Sicily, so long the battle-field of Europe and Africa, became, under 
Norman kings, the one example of really equal and tolerant govern- 
ment which the world could then show. Under the Norman scepter, 
the two most civilized races of the world, Greeks and Saracens, could 
live together in peace, and enrich their common country with results 
of skill and industry such as no northern realm could rival." 



NORMANS IN ENGLAND. 1 97 



the Saracens, and held it as a fief from his brother. Thus 
arose the kingdom of Naples, or the Two Sicilies. 

332. A still more important Norman conquest was that 
of England. Duke William,^ the sixth from Rollo, was a 
cousin of Edward the Confessor, the last English king of 
the family of Alfred. William declared that Edward, hav- 
ing no children, had promised him the English crown. 
This weakest of claims was, however, supported by strong 
arguments, in the favor of the Pope and the arms of 
60,000 warriors. He landed, with a great army, in the 
south of England ; Harold, the Saxon king 

chosen by the people, was slain in the Battle 

of Hastings ; and the whole country submitted, in time, to 

"William the Conqueror." 

333. He divided the land in fiefs among his barons, and 
gave all the chief places in church and government to 
foreigners. The Saxon nobles descended to the rank of 
thanes, or country gentlemen. William was the ablest 
prince of his age, and he usually aimed to be just; but he 
was terribly cruel and obstinate when his will was crossed. 
Among his most tyrannical acts was the devastation of 
a belt of land, 60 miles wide, in northern England, by 
which 100,000 people were made homeless, and thousands 
perished of hunger and cold. This was done to guard 
against invasions from Scotland and Norway. There was 
even less excuse for the burning of 60 villages, in Hamp- 
shire, to provide the "New Forest" for the king's favorite 
sport of hunting. 

334. William Rufus (A. D. 1087- 1 100), the second son 
and successor of the Conqueror, was an aljle but wicked 
king, caring more for his own wild pleasures than for 
the dearest interests of his people. He was killed by an 
arrow, while hunting in the "New Forest." His brother, 
Henry I, had been carefully educated for his duties as 
an English sovereign, and in many ways pleased the 



1 98 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. 



people, especially by marrying the heiress of their Saxon 
kings. But he unjustly deprived his eldest brother, Robert, 
of his Norman inheritance, and kept him shut up in Car- 
diff Castle for the last twenty-eight years of his life. 

335. Henry's only son, William, was drowned in the 
Channel, and the king attempted to secure the English 
crown to his daughter Matil'da. Some of the barons 
would have sustained her claim; but her haughty spirit 
offended them, and, after ten years of distracting civil 
war, Matilda fled to the continent, while her cousin, 

Stephen, was acknowledged as king. The 
iij5 II54- pgQpj^ suffered infinite miseries as a con- 
sequence of these royal disputes. The land was left un- 
cultivated ; for the poor people had no encouragement to 
sow or plant, when the fruits of their toil were sure to 
be swept awa)- by knightly robbers whose castles com- 
manded the whole country. Famine created solitudes, 
where once had been villages full of happy homes. The 
dispute was settled in A. D. 1153, by the death of Ste- 
phen's only son. He then consented to acknowledge 
Matilda's son, Henry, as his heir. 

336. France During the Dark Ages. — It has been 
seen how the feeble successors of Clovis gave way to the 
family of Pepin, and how the dominions of Charlemagne 
were divided among his grandsons (^ 314). The western 
part of those dominions remained longer under Carlo- 
vingian rule, than did either Italy or Germany, and kejjt 
exclusively the name of France. The descendants of 
Charlemagne had but little of his genius for war and gov- 
ernment; and the defense of the country against Saxon 
and Norman pirates was left to the great nobles, espe- 
cially to Robert the Strong, Count of Anjou and Orleans. 
Three times Paris was besieged by the Northmen, twice 
it was taken by storm, and the banks of the Seine were 
whitened with the bones of its murdered people. Charles 



HOUSE OF CAPET IN FRANCE. 199 



II., called the Fat, who, for a little while, reunited the 
whole empire of Charlemagne, only bribed 

. A D SSi; 886 

the pirates and suffered them to carry their • - • 

ravages farther inland, while he spent his strength in 
fighting the members of his own family. 

337. Count Robert was killed in battle, but his son, 
Eu'des, bravely defended Paris, and was called to the 
throne from which Charles had been deposed for his cow- 
ardice, A. D. 887. But a small party crowned Charles 
the Simple, who reigned north of the Seine while Eudes 
lived, and afterwards over all France. He gave up a 
large region, in north-western France, to Rollo the Dane, 
on condition of his followers becoming Christian and civ- 
ilized. To do them justice, the wild sea-rovers soon ex- 
celled their masters in the arts of orderly living (§ 330). 

338. Under the descendants of Charles IV., the real 
power rested with Hugh the Great, Duke of France and 
Count of Paris, who, for thirty-three years, set up and 
put down princes at his pleasure. His son, Hugh Capet, 
was chosen king by the nobles, A. D. 987, and his family 
continued to rule France more than eight centuries. His 
actual power was less, however, than that of some of his 
vassals. When he tried to compel the obedience of one 
by demanding, '"Who made you a count?" the reply 
was, "Who made you a king?" Continental Europe 
was then divided into great fiefs, and royalty was little 
more than a shadow. The dukes of Normandy, Bur- 
gundy, and Aquitaine, the counts of Flanders, Champagne, 
and Toulouse, were sovereign in their own dominions, 
paying little respect and still less obedience to the king. ' 

339. The reigns of Hugh and his son, Robert the 
Pious, were among the darkest periods of 

history. Under a deluded notion that the • • ^ ^■'°3'- 
year 1000 was to be the end of the world, the terror- 



200 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

stricken people refused to cultivate the ground. Famine 
and pestilence ensued, and some of the starved peasantry 
even fed on human flesh. A terrified crowd filled the 
churches ; many princes and rich nobles bestowed their 
wealth upon the monks, and set off on pilgrimages to the 
Holy Land, where it was believed Christ would soon 
appear. When the fatal year had passed, the western 
world breathed again ; but it was long before the injury 
springing from this delusion was repaired. 

Another and long prevailing source of misery was found 
in the private wars of the barons. No one dreamed of 
mercy or even common justice toward the peasants, whose 
fields were laid waste and their families reduced to starva- 
tion by the quarrels of their masters. Under Henry I. 
(1031-1060), the French clergy succeeded in establishing 
what was called the "Truce of God," and, in some 
degree, abated these calamities. All fighting was for- 
bidden between Wednesday evening and Monday morning, 
as well as on all holy days. 

Trace, on Map No. 1 , the conquests and settlements of the 
Northmen. 

Read Freeman's "Norman Conquest;" Palgrave's "Normandy 
and England;" Green's "Short History of the English People;" 
Hume's or Knight's "History of England;" Michelet's "History! 
of France." 

NOTES. 

1. Olga is regarded in Russia as a saint, and a special patroness of 
the imperial family. 

She was the wife of Igor, son and successor of Ruric, and, upon her 
husband's death, A. D. 945, she became regent for her son. Ten years 
later, she made a visit to Constantinople with a brilliant and imposing 
train, and received baptism in the Church of St. Sophia. She died at a 
great age in 969. 

2. Vladimir was the first Cliristian sovereign of Russia. He sent an 
embassy in 988 to Constantinople, demanding in marriage the Greek 
princess Anna, sister of the emperors Basil II and Constantine IX., and 
inarched an army to the Crimea, by way of enforcing his suit. This was 
successful, and Vladimir became not only a faithful ally of the emperors, 
but a zealous adherent of the Greek Church and enemy of the ancient 
paganism. Christianity became the established religion of his realm; 
and he founded many schools and churches to spread its influence 
among his people. 



1 



NOTES. 



3. The eleventh century seems to have been the great age of Scandi- 
navian enterprise; for, while the Normans were pushing their conquests 
in Italy, Sicily, Russia, and England, the Icelandic branch of their fam- 
ily had already reconnoitered the North American coast, and were 
making settlements, if tradition be true, within the present limits of 
the United States. 

Greenland was discovered and colonized by them in A. U. 985; and 
fifteen years later, Leif the Fortunate cruised near the shores of New- 
foundland, Nova Scotia^ Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. A German 
sailor of his crew was delighted with the wild grapes of the New En- 
gland coast, which reminded him of his native land. If the Northmen 
made settlements in America, tliey did not keep up communication 
with Europe, so that all record of them is lost. 

4. When a child of four years, Alfred was taken by his father, King 
Ethelwolf, on a pilgrimage to Rome; and, doubtless, during their long 
stay, his active mind received many impressions which influenced his 
later life. Though so long the prey of conquerors, Italy .still surpassed 
all western Europe in learning and civilization. On his homeward 
journey, Ethelwolf visited the court of the French king, Chaiics the 
Bald, where— his own queen having died many years before— he married 
the princess Judith. Among her bridal gifts was a volunie of old En- 
glish poems, which she used to read to her step-sons, and one day of- 
fered it as a prize to the one who would first learn to read. Alfred, 
though the youngest, was the one who gained the reward; and good 
books were ever afterward tlie dearest delight of his life. 

Four of Alfred's brothers wore the English crown before he was him- 
self called from his beloved studies to the heavy burdens of kingship. 

The whole country north of the Thames was now in the possession 
of the Danes, who reigned at York; and, after seven years' hard fight- 
ing, they had so nearly conquered flic south country, that Alfred was 
compelled to hide himself among the ninrsliy forests of Somersetshire. 
But he established a camp on an island of firm ground in the naidst of 
a bog; and, collecting some of his loyal subjects, often surprised the 
enemy by a night attack, while bringing in supplies of food. When he 
was ready for a more decisive battle, he first put on the di.sgnise of a 
harper, and, entering the camp of Guthrun at Ethandune, informed 
himself thoroughly of the numbers and condition of the Danes. He 
found them lazy and negligent, despising the English and fearing no 
attack. Then, swiftly and .secretly mustering his forces, he gained a com- 
plete and decisive victor.v. Guthrun acknowledged the over-lordship of 
Alfred, and agreed to content himself with the lands a.ssigned him in 
the northern and ea.stern part of England. His followers renounced 
their heathen worship and their marauding habits, and became as or- 
derly as the German invaders had become four centuries before. 

Alfred improved the years of peace which followed, by prDviding for 
the defense and civilization of his people. He rebuilt <-ities that the 
Danes had destroyed, and guarded his coasts by a powerful tli^et, and 
the land by a regularly trained militia. He founded schools, and re- 
quired all owners of land to send their sons thither for instruction. 
One of these was at Oxford, and Alfred is hence called the founder of 
the university. Learned men were employed in translating Greek and 
Latin books, and foreign artisans introduced useful manufactures into 
the countr.y. 

Even the king found time, in the midst of his many cares, to write 
or translate several books for the benefit of his people. Among his 
translations were Orosius's History of the World, and Boethius's Con- 
solations of Philosophy, but most valuable of all, the Psalms and other 
portions of the Scriptures. 

So great improvements were made by Alfred in the administration 
of justice, that he is sometimes named as the author of trial by 
jury, and some other safeguards of personal rights. He certainly did 
reorganize and enforce all that was best in the old German customs, 
from which our later institutions have been developed. This great king 
and lawgiver died in A. D 901, after a reign of thirty years. His moral 
greatness was shown in the sacrifice of his personal tastes for the good 
of his kingdom; and historians rank him with Washington and William 
the Silent (g^ 514-521) as one of the three highest examples of human 
character. 



MED/y^VAL HISTORY. 



5. "Williara became Duke of Normandy at the age of ten years in 
1035, his father, Dnlce Robert, liavinj; died in Asia Minor on liis return 
from a pilgrimage to tlie Holj^ Land. Tliougli so young, William soon 
proved liis energy and courage by putting down a rebellion of his barons. 
It was six years after William's accession in Normandy, when his cousin 
Edward— twenty-one years his senior— who had been a resident at tlie 
Norman court during the Danish occui)ati(>ii (if his <iwn land— was called 
to the throne of his ancestors. 8ubse(iu('ntly, William i)aiil Kdward a 
visit in England, where he doubtless gained sonu' intluence anirjiig the 
nobles; but if there is any truth in the story that he received a promise 
of tlie crown from his cousin, the latter must have used words which 
he had neither the right nor the power to make good. The Englisli 
crown could only be conferred by a free vote of the notables or wise 
men; and when tlie time came, they bestowed it upon Harold, son of 
the powerful Earl Godwin, and brother-in-law of Edward. A year be- 
fore, Harold had been shiijwreckeil uiion the Norman coast, and, though 
treated with courtesy, was really the inisuncr of the Duke, who resolved 
to extort the utmost possible advantage from his misfortune. Before a 
full assembly of the Norman barons, Harold was required to do hom- 
age (^317) to Duke W'illiam as heir-apparent to the Englisli tlndiie. 
Kneeling down, Harold placed his hands between those of the duke, 
and repeated the solemn form by which he acknowledged the duke as 
his lord, and promised to him fealty and true service. But William ex- 
acted more. He had caused all the bones and relics of saints, that were 
preserved in the Norman monasteries and churches, to be collected into 
a chest, which was placed in the council-room, covered over with a 
cloth of gold. On the chest of relics, wliich were thus concealed, was 
laid a missal. The duke then solemnly addressed his titular guest and 
real captive, and said to him: "Harold, I require thee, before this noble 
assembly, to confirm by oath the promises which tliou hast made me, 
to assist me in obtaining the crown of England after King Edward's 
death." . . . " H arold, taken by surprise, and not able to deny his 
former words, approached the missal, and laid liis hand on it, not know- 
ing tliat tlie chest of relics was beneath. The old Norman chronicler 
who describes tlie scene most minutely, says, when Harold placed his 
hand on it, the hand trembled and the flesh quivered ; but he swore. . . 
to deliver up England to the duke, and thereunto to do all in his power 
according to his might and wit, after the death of Edward, if he him- 
self should live. Many cried 'God grant it! ' and when Harold rose from 
his knees, the duke took oft" the pall that had covered the chest, and 
showed Harold upon what holy relics he had sworn; and Harold was 
much alarmed at the sight."— CVenf.s-;!/, ^(/"'ee« Decisive Battles of the World. 

The .same day, .Ian. .5, 1066, which witnessed the burial of King Ed- 
ward, the Confessor, in Westminster Abbey, saw the coronation of Har- 
old in the same building. Tradition says that from hi.s death-bed, the 
king stretched out his arms to the earl with the words: "To thee, Har- 
old, my brother, I commend my people." Within eight mouths the 
new king had to withstand two formidable attacks from the North 
and the South. Harold Hardrada, liiavest and strongest of the Norwe- 
gian kings, claimed England, as representative of Knut (j; 329), and Tos- 
tig, an unworthy brother of the Eniiiish Harold, treacherously espoused 
his cause. Tire "Saxon king met and defeated tliem in the battle of 
Stamford Bridge, near York— a battle so obstinately fought that all the 
flower of the Norwegian nobility iierished with their king, and Norway 
continued for a quarter of a century to be exhausted and weak. Har- 
old's losses were also great; and, while he was thus absent In the North, 
the duke of Normandy effected a landing in the South, with the results 
already stated. 

The' ruins of Battle Abbey at this hour attest the place where Har- 
old's army was posted, and the high altar stood on the very spot where 
Harold's "own standard was planted during the flght. 



PART II.— The Middle Ages. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE CRUSADES. 




>HE Saracen Empire in Asia was 
now in decline, and all its real 
power had fallen into the hands 
of the Turks/ a fierce Tartar tribe, 
whose dominion, under Malek 
Shah, extended from Arabia to 
the borders of China. In A. D. 
!073 they conquered Jerusalem,"'^ 
and put an end to the indulgence 
which Christian pilgrims had en- 
joyed under the caliphs. Multi- 
tudes, returning to Europe, told 
stories of cruel outrages inflicted 
by the barbarians; and the rage 
and grief excited by these stories came to their height 
when Peter the Hermit, a French monk, who had been 
in the East, traveled through Italy and France, with 'the 
approval of Pope Urban II., setting forth his plan for 
wresting the holy places from the infidel. All 
Europe was ablaze with zeal. Thousands of 
every rank and age put the red cross on their shoulders, 
which declared their purpose to die, if need were, for the 
deliverance of the Holy Land. Hence the wars which 
followed are called Crusades, or wars of the Cross. 

(203) 



Crusader. 



A. D. 1096. 



204 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



341. Not only soldiers, but old men, women, and chil- 
dren took part in the First Crusade. An unnumbered host 
of these, without order, officers, or plan, set out in the 
spring of 1096 A. D. In their ignorance, they expected to 
be fed by miracle, and to arrive at Jerusalem in a few days. 
Disappointed in both hopes, they either perished miserably 
of starvation and fatigue, or were killed in battle by the 
people whose corn-fields and granaries they attempted to 
rob. The two divisions led by Peter the Hermit and Walter 
the Penniless, were attacked by the Turks near Nice in Asia 
Minor, and a pyramid of their bones was the only monu- 
ment of this vanguard of the crusading hosts. 

342. The regular army of Crusaders moved in the autumn, 
by four different routes, toward their rendezvous at Constan- 
tinople. The most northerly division was led down the 

valley of the Danube by God'frey^ of Bouillon, 

A. D. 1096. 1 1 r T T • 1 

duke of Lower Lorrame ; the next, across north- 
ern Italy by Ray'mond of Toulouse,'* the greatest lord in 
southern France ; the third, across Epirus by Bo'emond^ 
of Taranto, son of Robert Guiscard (§331); and the last, 
by four princes, of whom one was Robert of Normandy, 
eldest son of the king of England. 

343. The emperor Alex'is, who had before been in terror 
of the Turks, was now equally alarmed by the numbers and 
power of his allies. The free and haughty bearing of the 
Franks'' — as all western Christians were, and are still, 
called at Constantinople — shocked his ceremonious court; 
and he was glad to "speed the parting guest" across the 
Bosporus. He was rewarded for his somewhat grudging 
hospitality by the town and fortress of Nice, which the 
Crusaders wrested from the Turks and restored to the 
Eastern Empire. 

344. Another great victory was gained over the Turks 
at Doryloe'um; but much had yet to be suffered before the 
Christian host arrived at Antioch, the capital of Syria 



CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM. 205 



(§168). The Turks had laid waste the country, and 
filled or poisoned the wells; so that multitudes died on the 
march, of hunger and thirst. Antioch withstood a siege 
of seven months; and when it was taken, the Christians 
were besieged in turn by a fresh army of 200,000 Turks, 
while a violent plague carried off 100,000 of 
their own forces. Nevertheless, a victory was ' • '°9 • 
gained, which opened the way to Jerusalem; but it was a 
pitiful remnant of the gallant armies, which, three years 
before, had assumed the Cross, that now arrived, with tears 
and shouts of joy, before the Holy City. 

345. This was again in the possession of the Saracens 
from Egypt, who had wrested it from the Turks; but a 
forty days' siege — during which the assailants 

suffered agonies of thirst in the midsummer ' '°^^' 

heat — ended in its capture by the Christians. By the 
votes of his brave comrades, Duke Godfrey was chosen to 
be the first Christian king of Jerusalem. He refused to 
wear a golden crown in the city where his Master had 
worn the crown of thorns; but he consented to be styled 
Guardian of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher. Godfrey 
survived his consecration to this office only one year, and 
was succeeded by his brother Baldwin. 

346. By successive conquests, the Christian kingdom of 
Jerusalem^ was extended eastward to the Euphrates, and 
southward to the borders of Egypt. The French language, 
customs, a-nd laws prevailed throughout the lands once 
ruled by David and Solomon, which were parceled out 
into four gre^it feudal baronies. The first of the three 
famous Orders of Chivalry, which added monkish vows to 
those of the knight, had its origin in the First Crusade. 
This was the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, or the 
"Knights Hospitallers." They were followed, in 1117, by 
the "Templars," who undertook the defense of pilgrims, and, 
in 1 19 1, by the "Teutonic" Order. §§360, 361, 460, 560. 



2o6 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



347. The Second Crusade was preached by St. Bernard'f 
abbot of Clairvaux — the greatest mind in Christendom in 

his time — and was led by two great mon- 

A. D. 1146-1149. a 

archs, the emperor Conrad III. and king 
Louis VII. of France. Nevertheless, it ended in nothing 
but disaster and disgrace. 

348. Sal'adin, 10 the prince of Moslem warriors for valor, 
courtesy, and gentleness of soul, now became sultan of 
Syria and Egypt. In a great battle near Lake Tiberias 

he broke the power of the Christians, and 

A. D. 1187. . . . 

captured their kmg, Cuy 01 Lusignan, with 
the grandmaster of the Templars, and many other nobles. 
Most of the important towns in Syria — and, last of all, 
Jerusalem — fell into his hands. This calamity aroused all 
Europe. The great emperor, Frederic Barbaros'sa, with 
his son and eighty-eight German princes, assumed the 
Cross, and so did the kings Philip Augustus of France 
and Richard^ ^ the Lion-Hearted of England. A. D. 11 89. 

349. The emperor never saw Jerusalem, for he was 
drowned in a little river in Asia Minor. All the Christian 
forces in Syria were mustered for the siege of Acre, when 

the arrival of the French and English kings 
effected its capture. The prodigious strength 
and valor of Richard were the admiration of the Christians, 
and the terror of the Saracens. But Philip was jealous, 
and, feigning illness, he returned home. Richard took and 
re-fortified Jaffa, Ascalon, and Gaza, and, fighting every 
step of the way, advanced within sight of Jerusalem. But 
his allies refused to join him in besieging it, and he 
withdrew in grief and shame, covering his face with his 
shield. 

350. News now came that King Philip was plotting with 
Richard's brother John for a partition of his dominions. 
John was to have England, while Philip seized all the fiefs 
in France for which Richard was his vassal (§318). These 



FOURTH AND FIFTH CRUSADES. 207 

were the two great duchies of Normandy and Aquitaine, 
with the counties of Maine, Anjou, Poitou, and Touraine. 
After making an honorable truce with Saladin, Richard 
embarked for home; but he was shipwrecked in the Adri- 
atic, and landing at Zara, tried to make the journey across 
Europe in the disguise of a pilgrim. He was recognized, 
seized, and imprisoned, by his bitterest enemy, the duke 
of Austria, whom he had insulted after the capture of 
Gaza. At length, being summoned to plead his cause 
before the Diet of the Western Emj^ire (S312), Richard was 
permitted to be ransomed and restored to his kingdom. 

351. A Fourth Crusade was proclaimed, A. I). 1200, by 
Pope Innocent III. The overland route had now been 
found too dangerous, and the French barons made a treaty 
with the Venetian Republic, then the greatest maritime 
power in Europe, to transport their armies, by sea, to the 
Holy Land. But first they undertook the cause of Isaac 
Angelas, emperor of the East, who had been dethroned, 
imprisoned, and depriveci of his sight by an unnatural 
brother. By two attacks they captured Constantinople, 
and restored the blind old emperor to his throne; but a 
quarrel afterward broke out between the Greeks and the 
Franks, which ended in a second capture of the 

city, and the foundation of the Latin Empire 

of the East. Most of the crusaders never reached the 

Holv Land at all. The Latin Empire lasted till 1261. 

352. The Fifth Crusade was marked by the siege and 
capture of Damietta in Egypt, though the Christian forces 
were afterwards overwhelmed with calamities by an over- 
flow of the Nile. The emperor Frederic II. was now 
engaged in a fierce contention with the Pope, who 
had first excommunicated him for delaying to join the 
Crusade, and again, for presuming to go while under cen- 
sure. His presence in the Holy Land, A. D. 1229, how- 
ever, secured the surrender of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Bethlehem, 



2o8 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



and Nazareth to the Christians, and he assumed the crown 
of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 

353. The Sixth Crusade was led by the king of Navarre, 
and by the English Prince Richard, a nephew of the 
Lion-hearted. By peaceful agreement, the greater part of 
Palestine was surrendered to the Christians, and the walls 
of Jerusalem were rebuilt. Christians and Saracens were 
now compelled to join their forces against a pagan horde 
of Tartars, who had been expelled from Korasmia by 

Genghis Khan, and who, sweej)ing over Pales- 
tine, captured Jerusalem, and murdered a vast 
multitude of its })eople. A two days' battle ended in the 
almost complete extermination of the Syrian hosts. But 
Bar'bacan, the Tartar chief, was soon slain, and western 
Asia breathed again. 

354. The Seventh Crusade was led by the good king 

Louis IX. of France. He captured Damietta, 
but afterwards, overwhelmed with disasters and 
himself a prisoner, he had to surrender it for his ransom. 
He then spent four years in the Holy Land, where he 
repaired the fortifications of Acre, and ransomed many 
thousands of Christian captives. He never saw Jerusalem, 

355. 'I'he Eighth Crusade was occasioned by the fall of 
Antioch; 17,000 of its people being slain, and 100,000 
carried away as slaves, by an army of Korasmian Turks, 
called Mamelukes, from Egypt. King Louis heartily engaged 
in it, but he died of the plague, in Tunis, before he could 

reach Palestine. Prince Edward, the future king 
of England, gained a victory over the Turks, 
and secured a favorable truce of ten }ears. 

356. The last general effort for the deliverance of the 
Holy Land is not even numbered by most historians 
among the Crusades, though the emperors of the East and 
West were enrolled in it. Acre was the only remain- 
ing possession of the Christians in the East, and it was 



MAP No. VIII. 



THE CRUSADES. 



First, led by Godfrey of Bouillon and others, A. D. 1096. 
Second, " the Emperor Conrad III. and 

King Louis VII. of France . . 1147. 
Third, " Emperor Frederic I. of Rome, 

Philip II. of France, and 

Richard I. of England . . 1189. 

Fourth ends in capture of Constantinople by 

Venetians and French . . . 1204. 
Fifth, led by Emperor Frederic II. . . . 1228. 
Sixth, " Theobald 1. of Navarre and 

Richard of Cornwall . . 1238. 

Seventh, " King Louis IX. of France . . 1248. 

Eighth, " " " " " " and 

Prince Edward of England . 1270. 

Note. — The Crusades are differently numbered by historians. 
Some omit the Sixth above mentioned, and name as the Fifth 
an ineffectual enterprise led by Andrew of Hungary, in 121 7. 



RESULTS OF THE CRUSADES. 



209 



besieged by a great army of 200,000 Mamelukes. The 
defense was long and obstinate, but at last the city fell, 
and all Palestine was overrun by the Turks. 

357. Although the Crusaders had failed of the end they 
sought, they had gained others of far more value. Their 
minds were enlarged by contact with customs different 
from, and usually superior to, their own. Compared with 
the art, learning, and refined society of Constantinople, the 
Franks were barbarians. Even from the Saracens, whom 
they had pictured as inhuman monsters, they had much 
to learn. They were amazed to find the "infidel dogs" 
better behaved than themselves; but they could not fail 

; to admire the delicate generosity of Saladin, who sent 
snow from Lebanon to Richard in sickness, and presented 
him with two beautiful Arabian horses when Richard's own 
had been killed in battle. 

358. Several peculiar products of Asia — sugar, the silk 
worm, and fine wheat, for example — were first brought into 
Europe by Crusaders, and a brisk trade now sprang up 
between the East and the West. Venetian merchants visited 
the great cities of China, and it is probable that they found 
there two inventions, gunpowder and printing, which were 
to change the whole current of European life. 

359. The immediate results in the West were not less 
great. Europe was divided, as we have seen, into a mul- 
titude of duchies and counties, whose holders wxre perpet- 
ually making war upon each other. Now it was good for 
those quarrelsome chiefs to be moved for once by a com- 
mon feeling, the only feeling that could move kings and 
vassals, priests and peasants, alike. The power of the 
Church was for a time supreme; the age of chivalry 
began ; the authority of the leading sovereigns became 
centralized and better established; Venice and Genoa 
secured an immense increase of trade. The lands which 
knights and barons had sold to pay the expenses of their 

Hist.-H. 



MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. 



crusades, were bought in many cases by the Church, but 
in others by thrifty citizens, and thus a middle class sprang 
up between nobles and peasants. 

360. The three Orders of. Chivalry, which had arisen 
from the Crusades, were now rich and powerful. The 
Templars, having no fit use either for their vast wealth 
or their knightly energies, became haughty, luxurious, and 
dangerous to the governments under which they lived. 
Their order was dissolved about 40 years after the last 
Crusade, and their lands were given to the Knights of 
St. John. See §404, and note, p. 240. 

361. These, in their successive stations at Cyprus, 
Rhodes, and Malta, kept up a rigorous discipline, and 
bravely defended southern Europe from the Turks. The 
Teutonic Knights had yet harder work to do. The Prus- 
sians, and several other tribes near the Baltic, were still 
heathen, and a century and a half of fierce conflict pre- 
ceded the establishment of Christianity in the northern 
wilds. The industry of the brotherhood meanwhile turned 
the salt marshes .into fertile fields by means of dykes and 
drainage ; and Marienburg, their fortress and capital, be- 
came a center of civilizing influences for all that pagan 
region. 

Trace, on Maps 8 and 13, the general course of Crusaders in 1096 
A. D. Point out their first conquest ; Antioch, Jerusalem, Acre, 
Jaffa, Ascalon, Gaza, Damietta. Lake Tiberias. Boundaries of the 
Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem. Stations of the Knights of St. 
John. Territory of the Teutonic Knights. 

Read Hallam's "Middle Ages," Ch. I, Part I, and Ch, VI; Mill's 
History of the Crusades ; Michelet's History of France ; Morrison's 
Life and Times of St. Bernard ; Milman's Latin Christianity, Book 
VI.; Heeren's Essay on the History of the Crusades ; and Finlay's 
History of the Byzantine and Creek Empire. Rev. James White's 
History of France, in one volume, will be found very useful by those 
who lack time or opportunity to consult larger works. 



NOTES. 



NOTES. 

1. These were the Seljukian Turks, so called from Seljnk, their chief, 
who, expelled from Turkestan hy the reigning prince, had settled with 
all his tribe in Bokhara, and had embraced the religion of Mohammed. 
Falling in battle when more than a liundred years old, Seljuk was 
succeeded by his grandson, Togrul Beg, the real founder of the dynasty. 
He overran most of the realm of the Abbassides, and even the caliph be- 
came his prisoner, but was treated with perfect respect, and appointed 
Togrul to be his lieutenant. From this time the caliphs were little more 
than the spiritual heads of Islam, the military power being committed 
to the Turkish chiefs. Togrul was succeeded in lOtiS by his nephew, Alp- 
Arslan (the Strong Lion), of whose justice and clemency wonderful 
stories are told. Under Alp-Arslan and his son, Maiek Shah, the Sel- 
jukian empire reached its greatest extent and power, and soon began 
to decline. For the character of the Seljukiaus in general, see note 2, 
below. The Ottoman Turks, who still hold their ground in western 
Asia, were a later arrival. See g378. 

2. Since its capture by Titus (?2.51), Jerusalem had undergone many 
changes. Rebuilt by Hadrian (§254) as a Roman city, it became, under 
(^onstantine (?267), the great center of Christian pilgrimages. Helena, 
the mother of Constantine,is said to have discovered the real sepulcUer 
and cross of Christ on this sacred ground, in A. D. 325; and she built 
the two churchs of the Nativity and the Holy Sepulcher, whose remains 
still exist. In 611 or 614, Jerusalem was captured by Chosroes, king of 
Persia. It was re-occupied by Heraclius, A. D. 629, but was conquered 
by the caliph Omar, A. D. 637, and continued under Saracen rule more 
than four centuries. 

The Saraceiis favored Christian pilgrimages, which resembled their 
own religious usage; and, they were not only enriched by the taxes 
imposed upon pilgrims, but sliared with Christian merchants in the 
profits of the great Easter fairs, which drew fleets of vessels from the 
Mediterranean ports, Genoa, Pisa, and Araalti. 

After tlie year 1000 had passed (^39), and a new Christian age had be- 
gun, the tide of pilgrimage set eastward with greater energy than ever. 

"Now, liowever," says Dean Milman, "the splendid, polished, and 
more tolerant Mohamniedanism of the earlier caliphs had sunk before 
the savage yet no less warlike Turks. This race of the Mongol stock 
had embraced all that was enterprising, barbarous, and aggressive, re- 
jecting all that was humane, or tending to a higher civilization, in 
Mohammedanism. They were more fanatic Islamites than the follow- 
ers of the prophet, than the prophet himself. The Seljukians became 
masters of Jerusalem; and, from that time, the Christians of Palestine, 
from tributary subjects, became despist^'d slaves; the pilgrims, from re- 
spected guests, intruders, whose hateful presence polluted the atmos- 
phere of pure Islamisni. Year after year came back the few survivors 
of a long train of pilgrinas, no longer radiant with pious pride at tlie 
accomplishment of their holy purpose, rich in precious relics, or even 
the more costly treasures of the East; but, stealing home, famished, 
wounded, mutilated, with lamentable tales of their own sutTerings and 
of those who had died of the ill-usage of the barbarous unbelievers. 

At length, the afflictions of the Christians found a voice which woke 
indignant Europe; an apostle who could rouse warlike Latin Ciiristen- 
dom to encounter with equal fanaticism this new outburst of the fanat- 
icism of Islam. This was the mission of the hermit, Peter."— iaim Chris- 
tianity, IV., Ch. VI. 

3. Godfrey was a younger son of Count Eustace, of Bologne, but 
early distinguished himself in the armies of the Emperor Henry IV., 
who rewarded him with the duchy of Bouillon, of which Sedan is the 
capital. His courage and genius for command were equaled by the 
patience and generosity which enabled him to pacify the conflicting 
passions of his comrades in arms. Tasso lias made Godfrey the hero of 
his poem, Jerusairm Delivered. 

4. Count Raymond IV., of Toulouse, conquered for himself from 
the Mohammedans the district of Tripoli, in Syria, and held it as a 
vassal (ii31fi) of the king of Jerusalem. 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



5. Boemond was an able and ambitious in'ince, discontented with 
his secondary rank, and aspiring to an imixiial crown, either in the 
East or West, perhaps botli. In his fatlier's life-time he had wrested 
Illj'ria, Macedonia, and Greece from tlic Kastern Empire, but these 
provinces had been lost. When Urban II. took counsel witli him, first 
of all tlie western princes, about tlie feasibility of a crusade, he warmly 
furtliered the scheme, hoping to regain the eastern provinces, or at least 
to find exercise for his military talents in some profitable enterprise. 
He was the leader in the siege of Antioch, and received that citj', with 
a large territory, as an independent principality. 

6. The Princess Anna Commena, daughter of Alexis, was a girl of 
fifteen years at tJie time of tiie First Crusade. In her Alexind, written 
thirty years later in the seclusion of a convent, she has given a lively 
account of the manners of the Prankish chiefs, which sliocked the re- 
fined tastes of tlie Greeks. One of the western counts even seated him- 
self on the imperial throne, at the very time when his companions in 
arms were taking tlieir oatli of obedience to Alexis. Being admonished 
of his rudeness, he still continued to mutter between his teeth, while 
staring fixedly at the emperor: "What rustic fellow is this, to be seated 
alone, wliile such leaders stand around him ! " 

Alexis (1U80-1118) was the first emperor of his family— the Comneni. 

7. The Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted 88 years, being overthrown by 
Saladiu in 1187 (jol8). 

8. Bernard was born in Burgundy, in 1001, of noble and pious parents. 
At 22 j^ears of age he quitted the pleasures of the world, and, witli tliirty 
young companions, including his five brothers, entered the convent of 
Citeaux. Two years later, he was made abbot of Clairvaux. The new 
abbey was only a rude wooden structure, erected bj' Bernard and his 
twelve monks with their own hands; but, from this humble dwelling 
went forth a power whicli was felt in all the courts of Europe. After 
Edessa liad been captured by the Mussulmans in 1115, Bernard roused 
the French and German people to a second Crusade, and, by his per- 
sonal appeals, overcanae the extreme reluctance of the Emperor Conrad 
to engage in it in person. Tlie power of genius, eloquence, and energy 
of will was heightened in Bernard by a supreme and unselfish devotion 
to what he considered right. He died in H53. 

9. Conrad III. was a son of Frederic of Hohenstaufen, and uncle 
of Fiederic Barbarossa. It was in tlie battle of Weinsberg, between 
Conrad and his rival, Plenry the Proud of Saxony, that the war cries 
of "Welf and " Weiblingcn " — more familiar to us in their Italian 
equivalents, Guelf and Ghibelline (^-itiS) were first heard. The Guelfs 
were dukes of Bavaria; the Hohenstaufen, dulies of Frauconia, Suabia, 
and Saxony. 

After losing thousands of his men in the march through Asia Minor— 
mainly through the treachery of his Greek guides— Conrad joined his 
forces "with those of King Louis of France, in laying siege to Damaseus. 
It proved a miserable failure, owing to the jealousy of the Christian 
barons of Palestine, and tlie two sovereigns returned to their western 
dominions more like fugitives than mighty princes. 

10. Saladin was a Kurd by birth, and had been vizier to Noureddin, 
sultan of Damascus, wlio dethroned tlie Fatimite (note, p. 182) calipli at 
Cairo, and aiMid l-',uyiit to his dominion. On Noureddin's death, Saladin 
made himself sultaii of all his dominions. Even his enemies admired 
Saladin's perfect humanity toward his prisoners, and high-minded gen- 
erosity toward liis adversaries in arms. His character is depicted in 
doubtless exaggerated colors in Scott's l\(li><)iiuii, and in Lessing's poem, 
jyatlian the Wise. 

11. See Chapter IX. for an account of the family to Avhich Richard 
beloiig(!d. He is brilliantly pictured in Scott's romances, Ivanhoe and 
Tlie Talimiatt. His real character is thus suminert up by Hume: "Of an 
impetuous and vehement spirit, he was distinguished by all the good 
as well as tlie bad qualities incident to that character; he was open, 
frank, generous, sincere, and brave; he was revengeful, domineering, 
ambitious, haughty, and cruel." 



CHAPTER VII. 




Venetian Nobleman. 



GUELFS AND GHIIiELLlNES. RISE OF ITALIAN AND GERMAN CITIES. 

HE two great powers of Europe, 
during the Middle Ages, were the 
Church and the Empire, and these, 
as we have seen, were often at 
deadly strife (§ 325). The emperor 
was the civil head of Christendom, 
as the pope was the spiritual head; 
and they often differed as to the 
boundaries of their respective juris- 
dictions. This rivalry probably had 
one advantage, in preventing either 
from becoming absolute. The 
haughty will of the Caesar could 
bow to none but the vicegerent of 
God; while the ambition of the Pope could only be curbed 
by a power which, like his own, was held to be of divine 
appointment. The Church had done good service in main- 
taining order during the Dark Ages; and, if it did not 
enlighten the people, it guarded the treasures of ancient 
learning for the benefit of later times. 

363, The Guelfs and the Hohenstaufen, two powerful 
German families, contended for the imperial crown. The 
latter obtained it, A. D. 1138; and the name GhiheUine, 
taken from one of their castles, was adopted, by the ad- 
herents of the emperors, to distinguish them from the 
Pope's party, who more commonly sided with the Guelfs. 
The cities of Italy, most of them independent republics, 
declared themselves either Guelf or Ghibelline ; and as 

(213) 



214 MEDL^VAL HISTORY. 



they were almost constantly at war, either among them- 
selves or against the emperor, these battle-cries rang 
through the peninsula for centuries. (See note 9, p. 212.) 

364. The great city of Milan, once an imperial capital 
(§ 263), led the opposition to Frederic I., the greatest 
of the Hohenstaufen. Twice it was besieged and taken, 
and after the second capture its stately walls were leveled 
with the ground. Even its enemies and rivals now joined 
it in a "Lombard League," which gained a great victory 
over Frederic at Legnano, A. D. 11 76. Seven years later 
the Peace of Constance established the independence of 
all the Lombard cities. See §348. 

365. By marrying the heiress of the last Norman king 
(§ 2)Z'^)i Frederic's son, Henry VI., obtained the crown of 
the Two Sicilies, in addition to that of the Empire. His 

son, Frederic H., was called Stupor Mundi 

A. D. 1212-I250. / , , r ^ Tir 1 1\ 1 

(the Amazement of the World), by reason 
of his brilliant talents. He enriched his native Italy by 
improved laws, and by his liberal patronage ot literature 
and commerce (^^352). Nevertheless, he was continually 
at war with the popes, who, at length, deposed him and 
offered all his crowns (i^ 324) to other princes. His death 
was followed by 23 years of confusion, several rival em- 
perors being acknowledged by different parties. The im- 
perial crown was given, at last, to Rudolph of Hapsburg' 
who had the good sense to leave Italy to itself, and use 
his power against the turbulent jn'inces and robber-knights 
who were destroying the peace of flermany. He demol- 
ished 70 castles, the strongholds of these marauders. 

366. Italy became almost wliolly Guelf. The Two Sic- 
ilies were bestowed upon Charles of Anjou,^ a French 
prince, who, moreover, ruled Provence in right of his wife, 
and exerted imperial power in Rome and several northern 
cities. But his harshness drove the Sicilians to revolt, and 
8,000 French were massacred, A. D. 1282. The island 



RIENZI AT ROME. 215 



became a separate kingdom, ruled for a century and a half 
by Arragonese princes. The "Two Sicilies" were reunited 
in 1435, under Alfon'so of Arragon. See §331. 

367. The cities of Lombardy soon lost their freedom 
and submitted to podestas, or tyrants, of whom the greatest 
were the Visconti of Milan. Rome was filled with murder 
and robbery, especially after Pope Clem'ent V. had re- 
moved the "Chair of St. Peter" to Avignon, in southern 
France. The 72 years absence of the popes 

1 ■ r 1 1 A. D. 1305-1377. 

was known to writers of that day as a 
"Babylonish Captivity." During this time the Roman 
tribune, Rienzi,^ succeeded, for a few months, in restor- 
ing order and dignity to his native city. Turbulent nobles 
submitted to his authority ; not only Italian 
cities, but foreign kings, recognized the new " ' ^'*'' 
Republic ; robbery ceased, and prosperity revived. But 
Rienzi's head was turned by his success; he was expelled; 
and when, after six years' exile and imprisonment, he 
returned with the support of the pope, he was slain in a 
popular riot. 

368. In 1377, Pope Gregory XI. came back to Rome; 
but his death was followed by the Great Schism (§ 419), 
during which two, and even three, popes were obeyed at 
once by different nations. In spite of these troubles, Italy 
was by far the richest and most civilized portion of Europe. 
The merchant-princes of Genoa and Venice lived in palaces 
surpassing those of kings, or even emperors, north of the 
Alps. Their commerce embraced all Europe, with south- 
ern and central Asia ; and, handling the money of all 
nations, they were the first modern bankers. The Bank 
of Venice dates from 117 1 A. D. While the Eastern 
Empire was falling to pieces through its own weakness 
and the attacks of the Turks, Venice became sovereign 
of the Morea, with Cyprus, Crete, and many of the Greek 
islands. Her great rival was Genoa, which monoiDoIized 



2l6 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

the commerce of the Black Sea, and this rivahy occasioned 
many wars. 

369. Florence is most celebrated of all the Italian re- 
publics for the freedom of her government and the genius 
of her people. The wealth of her great bankers, traders, 
and manufacturers of wool made many princes their debt- 
ors. After 1343 A. D. , magistrates could be chosen only 
from the "Arts," or trades-unions, and thus the indus- 
trial classes had supreme control of the government. 
Dan'te, the greatest poet of the Middle Ages, was a Flor- 
entine, but he spent most of his manhood in exile, owing 
to the deadly strife of Guelfs and Ghibellines. 

370. The chief power in Florence fell, during the 
fifteenth century, into the hands of the Med'ici, a family 
of wealthy citizens. Cosmo de Medici was the first who 
assumed to nominate candidates for public office. His 

grandson, Loren'zo the Magnificent, pro- 
moted the revival of learning and the arts. 
He collected ancient gems and statues, which stimulated 
the genius of the young artists whom his liberal patron- 
age drew about him. His ascendency marks the most 
brilliant period of Florentine history. 

371. Meanwhile the German cities had also risen to 
great importance. Each was governed by a Council of 
its Own choosing ; and, free from the jealousies which 
often ruined the Italian cities, they formed leagues for the 
common defense. Their chief enemies were the knights 
and nobles, who lived by plunder, and liked nothing so 
well as to rob a merchant of his costly wares. The idea 
that a mere tradesman could have rights which they were 
bound to respect never occurred to these noble high- 
waymen. 

372. The League of the Rhine, A. D. 1255, numbered 
60 cities: that of Suabia, in 1376, was still larger. Several 
free cities of Upper Germany — now Switzerland^— joined 



THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE. 217 



the Forest Cantons in a league, which at length secured 
the independence of the Swiss republics. Equally remark- 
able was the union of the Hanse^ towns of northern 
Germany, for the protection of their trade from pirates at 
sea and robbers on land. This league of merchants be- 
came so i^owerful that its fleets controlled the northern 
seas, and kings were proud of its alliance. Among its 
foreign factories were London and Bruges, where the Ger- 
man and Italian merchants met to exchange the gems, 
silks, and finer fabrics of Asia and the south for the fish, 
hemp, and timber of the north ; for, to the slow navigation 
of those days, the voyage from the Mediterranean to the 
Baltic was too long to be made in a single summer. 

373. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the 
common people were gaining power in almost every 
country in Europe. Before this time, society, outside 
of the Church, had been chiefly made up of nobles, with 
their vassals and serfs. But the cities of Italy, Spain, and 
soutliern France had always kept something of the free- 
dom which they had enjoyed under the Romans; and, in 
Germany, England, and the Low Countries, the wealth of 
artisans and merchants was now so great as to make them 
important to the sovereigns, who were always in want of 
money. Accordingly, representatives of the cities began 
to be called to a share in the government of all these 
countries. 

Point out, on Map No. 9, Genoa. Venice, and her dominions. 
Florence. Milan. Avignon. Lubec. Hamburg. Bruges. London. 

Read Sismondi's History of the Italian Republics; Campbell's 
Life of Petrarch; Dante's "Vita Nuova," translated by Norton; 
Longfellow's "Dante," with the Notes; Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo 
de' Medici; J. A. Symonds's Renaissance in Italy, Vol. L, The Age 
of the Despots. 



2l8 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. Hapsburg was a rather insiguificant little castle in southern Sua- 
bia, though its name has become one of the most illustrious in Europe, 
from its having been the cradle of so powerful a family. Knight Ru- 
dolph, the founder of the ducal and imperial line, was so poor that he 
is said to have mended his own clothes; but he was a brave and pru- 
dent man, well able to cope with the disorderly elements within the 
empire. Ottocar, king of Bohemia, was the most dangerous of the great 
princes; but he was subdued, and his kingdom was added, a few years 
later, to the dominions of the House of Luxembourg. Subsequently it 
became a part of the Austrian dominion, to which it still belong.s. 

Rudolph bestowed the Duchy of Austria upon his son Albert, who 
was afterwards elected King of the Germans, though he was never 
crowned at Rome. 

2. Charles married Beatrice, daughter of Count Raymond-Berenger 
of Provence, who is said to have been bitterly dissatisfied with the title 
of Countess, while her sisters were the wives of kings. One of them 
was Eleanor, consort of Henry III. of England (^ 384). The ambition of 
Charles, however, needed no incitement from his wife's complaints; 
and the events of that turbulent age atforded him abundant opportunity 
for self-aggrandizement. The Pope having excommunicated the two 
sons of Frederic II., bestowed upon him the Sicilian kingdoms; wliile 
the titles of senator of Rome and imperial vicar, which he held during 
the intenegnum in the empire (j36.5), gave him the control of all the 
rest of Italj-. By his orders, young Conradin, grandson of Frederic II.— 
who had come into Italy to claim his inheritance, but had been de- 
feated and captured— was beheaded with five of his companions in the 
market-place at Naples. On the scaffold the prince solemnly bequeathed 
his kingdom to his cousin Constance, wife of the king of Aragon; and 
Sicilv soon became a possession of her family. Naples and its territo- 
ries "were for centuries in dispute between the French and the Aragonese 
princes. Charles of Anjou died In 1285, the .same year with the kings 
of France and Aragon. 

3. Nicolas, or Colas di Hienzi was Ijorn at Rome, was liberally edu- 
cated, and became a friend of tlie poet Petrarch about A.D. 1340. In 1342 
he accompanied Petrarch and others in a deputation sent by the citizens 
to the Pope at Avignon, beseeching him to return to Rome. The city was 
a prey to tumult and anarchy— the great nobles issuing from their castles 
to rob and murder at their will, while their armed followers had al- 
most daily fights in the streets. Since neither Emperor nor Pope would 
come to the rescue, Rienzi proposed to the citizens a restoi-ation of the 
"Good Estate" of the ancient republic. Refusing the proud title of 
Senator, which they would gladly have bestowed, he chose to be called 
Tribune, or champion of the people ; and, for a few months, Rome resumed 
something of her ancient rank. The king of Hungary and the queen 
of Naples submitted their cause to his arbitration, and the republics of 
northern Italy sought his protection. He cited the Emperor Louis to 
appear and submit his election, as of old, to the choice of the Roman 
people, and he required the Pope and the cardinals to return to their 
lawful seats. The story of Rienzi is well told in Bulwer's iji'e/izi, the Last 
of the Tribunes. 

4. Beginning of the Swiss League. " While the three kingdoms 
which belonged to the empire were thus getting weaker and more di- 
vided, an ". vvhile the kingdom of France to the west of them was grow- 
ing stronger and stronger, two new powers gradually arose in what we 
may call the borcier-land of all these kingdoms. One of these lasted but 
a short time, ':iv:. :hc other has lived on to our own day. These are the 
Duchy of j:iurgund);,-a.nC the League of the Swiss Cantons. This last began 
among three :^mall mountain districts on the borders of Germany, Bur- 
gundy, anci Italy; called Vri. Schiri/tz, and Unlerivalclen. They were Ger- 
man-speaking iiemcers of the empire, and there was nothing to dis- 
tinguish them from other German-speaking members of the^empire, 
except that they had kept far more of the freedom of the old times 
than most other lands had. Like many other districts and cities of the 



NOTES. 219 

empire, tliey joined together iu a league for mutual defense. This they 
had doubtless done from earlier times, but the first written document 
of their union belongs to the year 12!)1. The Counts of Hapsburg (See 
g36o and note), who had now become Dukes of Austria, and who had 
estates within the three lands themselves, were now very dangerous 
neighbors, and the confederates had to keep close together in order to 
guard their freedom. This they made safe by the battle of Morgarten, 
which they won over Duke Leopold of Austria, in i:>lo. Presently sev- 
eral of the neighboring cities. Lucerne, Zurich, and Berne, joined their 
alliance, as did also the smaller towns of Zug and Glarus; so that in the 
course of the fourteenth century they had a league of eight states. Its 
name was the Old League of High Germany, and its members were 
called the EhJgenossen or Confederates; but the name of the Canton of 
Schwytz gradually spread over the whole league, and they came to be 
commonly called Swiss, and their country Switzerland. . . . 

"Such a league was, of course, much dreaded by the neighboring no- 
bles, but it was for a long time favored by the Emperors. . . . But 
the Dukes of Austria were their constant enemies, and therefore, when 
the empire passed into the Austrian House, the confederates had to be 
on their guard against a power which had hitherto been friendly. But 
they did not throw off their allegiance to the empire. . . . They were 
simply one of many German leagues, which circumstances allowed to 
become more independent than the others, and, as it turned out, to 
survive them."— Jf<Vee»non'* Gen. Sketch, 219-221. 

The Swiss republics were first recognized as a separate power by the 
Treaty of Westphalia (§572) in 1648. Switzerland is now a Federal Re- 
public, composed of 2o states, or 22 cantons, whose constitution closely 
resembles tliat of the United States. 

5. The name Hansa was used in the middle ages to denote a union, 
first of merchants and afterwards of towns, for commercial purposes. 
Tlie Hansa, or Hanseatic League, which became so extensive as usually 
to monopolize the name, grew from a union of Hamburg and Lubeck— 
the one commanding the North Sea, the other the Baltic— to avoid by 
a land route, the dangerous passage of the Sound and the Belts, anil 
escape the "Sound Dues" levied by the Kings of Denmark. The mer- 
chants of those days had great need to combine for mutual protection; 
for the seas swarmed with pirates and the land with robbers— often of 
noble birth — who regarded peaceful traders as their natural prey. The 
feudal system had no place for merchants, but recognized only lords, 
vassals, and serfs. It was necessai-y, therefore, for the inhabitants of 
cities to look to their rights as against the landed aristocracy. It is not 
known how early the northern League was formed; but in 1362 it was 
powerful enough to storm and capture Copenhagen. In a subsequent 
war all Denmark fell into the hands of the League, and, by the Treaty 
of Stralsund, A. D. 1370, King Waldemar resigned to them two thirds 
of all his revenues for fifteen years, as the price of his return to his 
throne. This war had a great ell'ect in consolidating the League and 
leading it to adopt a regular federal constitution. In later times it was 
divided into four quarters, with their respective capitals at Lubecli, 
Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzic. The foreign factories were London, 
Bruges, Bergen in Norway, and Novgorod in Russia— the latter then a 
town of .300,0110 inhabitants, and an important center of art, learning, 
and industry. After more than tliree centuries of power, the League 
declined, partly because of the diversion of commerce to the new mar- 
itime routes (HSo); partly, perhaps, because of the better protection af- 
forded by goverments. A minor cause is curious: the annual shoals of 
herrings changed their course to the southward, greatly enriching Hol- 
land, but withdrawing from the Swedish and Norwegian coasts, where 
the Hansa liad a monopoly of the flslieries. The last geneial assembly 
of the League took idace in 1669. Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen con- 
tinued to call themselves Hanse-towns, but the union ceased. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE TARTAR CONQUESTS. 

URING the last Crusades^ Asia 
and Eastern Europe suffered the 
most terrible devastations from the 
nomadic races (^ 2) which history 
records. The Turks, a brutal race 
of Tartars, had been, first, the hired 
soldiers and then the conquerors of 
the calii)hs (§303). Their domin- 
ion, during the last half of the 
eleventh century, extended over the 
greater part of central and western 
Mongol Warrior. Asia. Another Tartar family con- 

quered India, and plundered its temples of an untold 
wealth of gold and jewels. 

375. But the greatest of these Scythian hordes w-ere the 
Mongols, led by Tem'ujin, whose irresistible power gained 
for him the name of Gen'ghis Khan^ or Universal Lord. 
Followed by an immense army, he first undertook the con- 
quest of China. The Great Wall, built fourteen centuries 
before, to keep out the ancestors of the Mongols, proved 
to be no sufficient barrier ; nor could the artificial thunders 
and lightnings, which were launched from the walls of 
Pekin — for the Chinese had long known the 
uses of gunpowder — prevent the capture of 
that capital and the conquest of northern China. Subse- 
quent wars made Genghis master of all central Asia, from 
the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea, a country which was 
then richer and more civilized than now. Hundreds of 
(220) 



A. D. 1215. 



MONGOLS AND TURKS. 221 



populous cities, stored with the treasures of art, learning, 
and industry, were destroyed; and five millions of human 
lives are said to have been sacrificed to this monster's 
thirst for dominion. 

376. The descendants of Genghis overthrew the feeble 
remnant of the Abbasside Empire at Bagdad, and extended 
their raids to the Adriatic, the borders of Germany, and 
the Polar Sea. Russia paid tribute to them 

for more than two hundred years; and the -^9 4 • 

Mongol dominion was the most extensive that the world 
has ever seen. Ku'blai Khan, a grandson of Temujin, 
conquered southern China, and ruled all Asia, except 
Hindustan, Arabia, and Syria. He invited Christian mis- 
sionaries to his court at Pekin ; and kept the famous 
Venetian traveler, Marco Polo," many years in his service. 

377. During the next century the Mongol Empire fell 
to pieces; but, about 1365 A. D., Ti'mour, or Tam'erlane,^ 
a descendant of Genghis, set out on a career of conquest 
which nearly reunited all his ancestor's dominions, with the 
addition of Hindustan. Pyramids of human heads marked 
the fields of his victories, and 100,000 captives were mur- 
dered at one time in cold blood, lest they should hinder 
his march ! In a battle with the Ottoman 

Turks, at Angora, in Asia Minor, Timour de- 
feated and captured Bajazet, their chief, whom he kept 
the rest of his life in an iron cage. Not only the Otto- 
mans, but the Roman Empire of the East, paid tribute to 
the conqueror. Ba'ber, a descendant of Timour, founded 
the great Mogul Empire in India. Its seat was at Delhi, 
and its magnificence has probably never been surpassed. 

378. The Ottoman Empire was founded, A. D. 
1288- 1326, by Oth'man, who fixed his capital at Brusa. 
One by one the provinces of the Eastern Empire, both in 
Asia and Europe, fell into his hands, until only Constanti- 
nople remained to the Caesars; and even within its walls 



MEDIM VA L HlSrOR V. 



the Turks had a colony. The first regular standing army 
in Europe was formed by Am'urath I. from Christian cap- 
tives taken in childhood, whom he trained 

A. D. 1360-1389. • 1 1 • I IT 

With the greatest strictness to be soldiers 
and Mohammedans. Tliese Janizaries^ were the best sol- 
diery the world then knew, and were perfectly devoted to 
their sultan. , 

379. The chief defenders of Europe were the Hungari- 
ans, but their king, Sig'ismund, was twice defeated by the 

Turks, and, at Nicopolis, his army of 100,000, 
^^ numbering the bravest knights in Christendom, 
was routed, or destroyed, by Bajazet (^^ 377)- Constanti- 
nople was four times besieged without effect, but at length, 
in 1453, Mohammed II. encamped, with an irresistible 
force, al)out its walls. His cannon soon effected a breach, 
the Janizaries rushed in, and, on the fifty-third day of the 
siege, the imperial city fell. Constantine XII., the last of 
the eastern Caesars, was slain in its defense. 

380. This great event filled all Europe with terror. The 
"Turks' Bell" rang at noon from every spire, calling all 
Christians to pray for the defeat of the infidel. Tlie Hun- 
garians kept up a brave resistance ; and their leader, 
Hunia'des, by a victory over Mohammed II., rescued the 
important fortress of Belgrade, commanding the Danube. 
The ro])e's attempt to unite all the ])owers of Europe 
in a crusade failed, ^'enice carried on war fifteen years 

witli the intruders on her own account ; but at 
length made peace, and even entered upon a 
disgraceful traffic with the Turks for Christian slaves. 

Trace, on Majis No. 4 and 7, the conquests of Genghis Kliaii and 
his descendants. The progress of llie Ottoman Turks. Point out 
Bagdad. Belgrade. 

Tlie last chapters of Clibbon, and the first of Dyer's History of 
Modern Europe, are the best authorities. Read, also, Finlay's 
History of the Byzantine and Greek empires. 



NOTES. 223 



NOTES. 

1. The title Genghis Klian is spelled in twenty different ways, with 
almost equal anthority, and is variously interpreted. Some suppose it 
to he equivalent to the Chinese Chingszeor Perfect Warrior. On his 
father's death, Temujin succeeded to the chieftainship of the ]Mongol 
trihes at the age of thirteen, A. D. 1175 Most of the secondary chiefs 
had been held in subjection by the iron rule of the old warrior, and 
had no mind to submit to be led by a child; but the jirecocious spu'it 
(if the lad and his mother's energy soon established his supremacy. 
Many years of war were required, however, before the chief of a few 
tribes could call himself the ruler of an empire. In 1206, at the age of 
44, he convened a great assembly of the notables of his kingdom at his 
birthplace in ^Mongolia, and, at their request, assumed the title above 
quoted. His followers were called the Golden Horde. He died A. D. 
1227, in Mongolia. 

2. Marco Polo was the greatest traveler of the Middle Ages, and the 
tlrst who, from his own experience, made known to Europeans the 
wonders of the farthest extremities of Asia. The good king, Louis the 
Ninth of France, had indeed sent the Franciscan Rubruquis (or Ruys- 
brock) on a mission to the Tartar courts (§376), and his vivid pictures 
of the almost unknown world of central Asia are invaluable to students 
of that time; but his travels were much less extensive than those of 
Polo. The latter, says Col. Yule, " was the first to trace a route across 
the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after 
kingdom which he had seen with his own eyes; the deserts of Persia, 
the flowering plateaus and wild gorges of Badakhshan. . . . The Mon- 
golian Steppes, cradle of the power that had so lately threatened to 
swallow u|) C'liristendom ; the new and brilliant court that had been 
established at Cambaluc; the first traveler to reveal China in all its 
wealth and vast ness,— its mighty rivers, its huge cities, its rich manu- 
factures, its swarming population, the inconceivably vast fleets that 
quickened its seas and inland waters; to tell us of the nations on its 
borders with all their eccentricities of manners and worship. ... of 
Japan, the eastern Thule, with its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces; 
the first to speak of tliat museum of beauty and wonder, still .so im- 
perfectly ransacked, the Indian ArchipelagD, source of those aromatics 
then so highly prized, and whose origin was so dark; of Java, the pearl 
of islands; of Sumatra, with its many kings, its strange, costl.v products, 
and its cannibal races. ... of India tlie liicat, not as a dream-land 
of Alexandrian fables, but as a country seen and jiartially explored. . . . 
the first in mediaeval times to give any distinct account of tlie secluded 
Christian empire of Abyssinia, and the semi-Cliristian Island of Soco- 
tra; to speak, though indeed dimly, of Zanziliar, and of the vast and 
distant Madagascar, bordering on the Dark Ocean of the south; . . . 
and, in a reniotely opposite region, of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean, of 
dog-sledges, white bears, and reindeer-riding Tunguses." 

The father and uncle of Marco Polo, who were merchants, were the 
first to visit the court of Kublai Khaii in Cathay, or Eastern China. 
The Tartar prince was delighted with their accounts of Europe, and, on 
their return, made them the bearers of a very important message to the 
Pope. He desired a hundred eilucated missionaries to convert his peo- 
ple to the Christian faitli. Kublai hiinself was perhaps indittbrent to- 
wards all religions; but he strongly wished to improve and civilize his 
rude Tartar kinsmen, and judged from the conversation of these worthy 
Venetians that their faith would better effect this result than Moham- 
medanism or any other form of belief that he had met. 

On their arrival at Acre, in 12(i9, the brothers found that Pope Clem- 
ent IV. had died, and no successor had been elected. It was more than 
two years before they could obtain an answer to their request, and then 
only two Dominican friars were willing to undertake the toilsome jour- 
ney. Even they drew back at the first experience of its hardships; and 
Kublai Khan, for want of Christian instructors, was forced to commit 
the spiritual care of his people to the Lamas of Thibet. 

Marco Polo, now seventeen years old, joined his father and uncle lu 
this second expedition, and, after an adventurous journey of three years 
and a half, arrived, in A. D. 1275, at the Cathayan court. He was kindly 



2 24 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



received by the monarch, and set himself diligently to learn the many 
languages spoken in this mixed dominion. He was soon employed in 
important missions to the various provinces, whose people were "in 
every stage of uncivilization," and "atTorded him an acquaintance with 
many strange products and eccentric traits of manners." He "had ob- 
served the Khan's delight in hearing of stranj^e countries, their marvels, 
manners, and oddities, and had heard his Majesty's frank expressions 
of disgust at the stupidity of his commissioners, when they could speak 
of nothing but the official business on which they had been sent. Prof- 
iting by these observations, he took care to store his memory or his 
note-books with all curious facts that were likely to interest Kublai, 
and related them with vivacity on his return to court." Thus he cul- 
tivated his powers oi observation and description, and became the most 
delightful of story-tellers. 

After twenty years spent in the service of the Tartar prince, the three 
Venetians were allowed to depart by sea with a fleet consisting of thir- 
teen Chinese junks. They cruised among the islands and along the 
coasts of India nearly two years, but landed at length at Hormuz, in 
the Persian Gulf, and proceeded northward to Tabreez, and thence 
westward by Trebizond, Constantinople, and Negropont to Venice. 

They found their house occui)ied by others, and themselves unknown 
even to their nearest kin; Ijut, when they produced from the seams 
and linings of their "shabby Tartar raiment," the wealth of rubies, dia- 
monds, and emeralds which the great Khan had conferred upon them, 
they began to be recognized. "And .straightway the whole city, gentle 
and simple, flocked to the house to embrace them," and to hear the 
wonderful stories of their adventures. 

(Subsequently Marco was taken prisoner by the Genoese in the battle 
of Curzola, and it was during the tedious hours of captivity at Genoa 
that the story of his travels was written down from his lips. 

3. This name is a corruption of Taimoor-Leng— Timour the Lame. 
Timour was born A. D. 1836, at Kesh, in Independent Tartary. His 
military career began about lyei, when he took part with Husein, Khan 
of northern Khorassan, against some neighboring tribes, and received the 
wound which mafie him lame for life— though it did not diminish his 
warlike energy. His subsequent conquests extended from the Grecian 
archipelago to central India. An Afghan dynasty was now reigning in 
great magnificence at Delhi, its enormous wealth drawing upon it fre- 
quent attacks from the Mongols; but the invasion of Timour led, in a 
few years, to its fall. Crossing the Hindu Kush, A. D. 1398, with 90,000 
horsemen, the Tartar chief penetrated to the plain of Delhi, conquered 
the city in a great battle, and gave it over to his followers, who loaded 
themselves with gold and jewels. Savage though he was in his cruelty, 
Timour delighted in the conversation of learned men, and in enriching 
Samarcand, his capital, with works of art and collections of choice 
manuscripts. He died on his march toward China, 1405. 

4. The Janizaries were the favorite soldiers of the Sultan ; and their 
place of honor near his person, the splendor of their equipment, and 
the liberality with which they were treated, all combined to attach 
them to his service. They had usually been taken from their homes at 
so early an age that they had forgotten their parents and the scenes of 
childhood; and trained, as they were, in the INlohammedau religion, 
there was nothing to conflict with their new allegiance. After the 
Turlvish power began to decline, their ranks could no longer be recruited 
by captives taken in war, and the odious child-tribute was imposed on 
the Chiistian populations subject to the Porte. No family was secure 
from the visits of the recruiting officer, who seized the most promising 
boys and dragged them away to the barracks at Constantinople. Mat- 
urally, as the Turkish government grew weaker, this powerful soldiery 
became a source of danger rather than of strength. Each sultan in 
succession had to buy the obedience of the Janizaries by an increased 
donative, and, like the Praetorian guards of ancient Rome (!i^25(i, 2ti0), 
they presumed to set up, depose, and even murder sultans at their will. 
Othman II., after reverses in war, was murdered in 1622 by his Janiza- 
ries, who then dragged from a dungeon his imbecile uncle, Mustapha, 
and placed him upon the throne. At last, in 1826, Sultan Mahmoud 
put an end to this dangerous body of troops by a summary massacre. 



MAP No. IX. 



WRITERS OF THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 
AND THE RENAISSANCE. 



Italian. 

Dante, A. D. 1265-1321 : "The Divine Comedy," etc. 

Petrarch, 1304-1374: Sonnets, etc. 

Boccaccio, 1313-1375 : "The Decameron." 

Ariosto, 1474-1533: " Orlando Furioso." 

Tasso, 1544-1595 : "Jerusalem Delivered." 

Machiavelli, 1469-1527 : "History of Florence/' "The 

Prince," etc. 
Guicciardini, 1482-1540: " History of Italy." 

French. 

Froissart, 1333-1400 . "Chronicles." 

Philippe de Comines, 1445-1509: "Memoirs." 

Queen Margaret of Navarre, 1492-1549: "The Heptameron." 

Rabelais, 1483-1553 : "Gargantua and Pantagruel." 

Montaigne, 1533-1592 : "Essays." 

English. 

John Wicliffe, 1324-1384: First English Translation of the 

Bible. 
Sir John Mandeville, 1300-1372 : " Voyage and Travel." 
Robert Langland, 1332-1400: "Vision of Piers Plowman." 
Geoffrey Chaucer, 1328-1400: " Canterbury Tales," etc. 
John Gower, 1327-1408: "Confession of a Lover." 
Sir Thomas Malory, 1430-1465 : "Morte d' Arthur." 




U.U.ViiU.del. 



MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE 
ARTISTS. 



Cimabue, A. D. 1 240-1302: Founder of Italian School of 

Painting. 
Giotto, 1276-1336: Frescoes, Bell Tower at Florence, etc 
Orcagna, 1329-1376 : Frescoes in Campo Santo, at Pisa. 
Hubert and Ian Van Eyck, 1366-1440: Founders of Flemish 

School of Painting. 
Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1 381-1455 : Bronze Gates of Baptistery 

at Florence. 
Brunelleschi, 1377-1444: Dome of Cathedral at Florence. 
Donatello, 1383-1466: Statues of St. George, St. Peter, etc. 
Masaccio, 1402-1429: Frescoes, etc. 
Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519: "Last Supper," at Milan, 

etc. 
Michael Angelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564: Statues, Frescoes, 

Church of St. Peter at Rome. 
Raphael Sanzio d' Urbino, 1483-1520: Paintings. 
Ghirlandajo; 1451-1495; Frescoes at Florence, etc. 
Perugino, 1446-1524: Frescoes at Perugia and Rome. 
Tohn of Bellini, 1424-1514: Founder of Venetian School. 
Francesco Francia, 1450-15x7: " Madonna Enthroned," etc. 
Fra Bartolommeo, 1469-1517: Paintings. 
Giorgione, 1477-1511 : Paintings of Venetian School. 
Titian, 1477-1576: " The Assumption," etc. 
Andrea del Sarto, 1487-1530: Frescoes in Florence, etc. 
Giulio Romano, 1492-1546: Frescoes in the Vatican, etc. 
Correggio, 1494-1534: Paintings of the "Ascension," etc. 
Albert Diirer, 1471-1528: Founder of German School of 

Painting, Inventor of Etching, Perfecter of Wood 

Engraving. 
Hans Holbein, 1495-1543: Portraits, etc. 

Note. — The dates are those of Woodward and Gates* Encyclo- 
paedia of Chronology. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PLANTAGENETS IN ENGLAND. 

HE violence and misery of 
Stephen's reign (§335) were 
exchanged for comparative 
order and peace under the 
strong hand of Henry II. 
(A. D. 1 1 54-1 189), one of 
the greatest monarchs of his 
age. He was the first of 
the Enghsh Plantagenets,* 
a family who wore the crown 
331 years. By inheritance 
and by marriage, he was lord 
of more than half of France ; 
and, though he did homage 
(§317? 35°) to Louis VII. 

Insurgent Peasants. ^^^ j^^^ ^^^.^ g^^^^ duchics and 

four counties,^ his power greatly exceeded that of his suzerain. 

382. Ireland was conquered by the arms of his brave 
barons, aided by the quarrels of its native chiefs; but 
for centuries it brought little more tlian a new title, with 
endless vexations to the English king. Henry had a 
seven years' contention with his former friend, Thomas a 
Becket, whom he had made Archbishop of Canterbury. 
It ended with the murder of Becket,- at the altar of his 
own cathedral; but King Henry afterwards made a peni- 
tential pilgrimage to the tomb at Canterbury, where he 
humbly begged the monks to scourge him "for the good 




■•■■ From plaiila gowsta, a sjjrig of biooni-coni, liis father's badge. 
Hist.- 15. (225) 



226 MEDI.-EVAL HISTORY. 

of his soul." The same day, his armies defeated and 
captured the king of the Scots, and Henry joyfully accepted 
the victory as a token of St. Thomas' forgiveness. 

383. Henry's son, Richard I. (A. D. 1 189- 1 199), is 
best known to us as a crusader (§§340, 353), for he paid 
little attention to his kingdom. His brother John (A. D. 
1199-1216) lost all his French dominions through his crimes 
and cowardice; and the English barons, taking the defense 
of the kingdom into their own hands, forced him to grant 

the Great Charter^ (J/rt'^;/<? C/iarta), which secured 
the foundations of justice and freedom. Pope 
Innocent HI. called upon all Christian princes to join in a 
crusade to dethrone John, and his late feudal chief, the king 
of France, gladly obeyed the summons. But John's sudden 
death put an end to the French invasion; for the barons 
who had opposed him bravely defended the rights of his 
son Henry, who was only nine years old. 

384. During the weak reign^ of Henry HI. (A. D. 1216 
-1272), the barons had to assume the government again, 
and their great leader, Earl Simon de Montfort, summoned 
the first parliament in which citizens had part as well 
as nobles and bishops. In war with the barons, King 

Henry and his son were made prisoners; but 

A. D. 1265. . '■ ' 

the next year Earl Simon was defeated and 
slain at Evesham. 

385. Edward I. (A. D. 1272- 1307), was recalled from 
his crusade (§355) to assume the crown. He put an end 
to the bold robberies, and other disorders, which his 
father's weakness had encouraged; conquered Wales, and 
might have subdued Scotland, but for the brave resistance 
of Wallace and Bruce. While marching to meet the latter, 
who had been crowned as King Robert I., Edward died. 
He was an able and generous king, loving his people, 
and seeking their welfare by wise laws and a firm execu- 
tion of justice. 



THE BLACK PRINCE. 227 

386. Edward II. (A. D. 1307 -1327), was the exact 
opposite of his father — weak, cowardly, and 

vicious. His defeat by Bruce, at Bannockburn, j 4 

secured the independence of Scotland. His fondness for 
worthless favorites offended the barons, who joined his 
French queen, Isabella, in dethroning him. He was after- 
wards murdered by the cjueen's orders. 

387. His son, Edward III. (A. D. 1327-1377), was a 
warlike and powerful king. The very slight claim, which 
he had inherited from his mother, to the crown of France, 
tempted him to invade that country; and he 

gained a decisive victory over king Philip VI. 
at Gre'cy. His eldest son, a youth of 16 years, greatly 
distinguished himself in the battle. Finding among the 
slain the body of the blind old king of Bohemia, Prince 
Edward adopted his motto, "I serve," and the black armor, 
from which he became known as the "Black Prince." 

388. King Edward followed up his victory by the siege 
and capture of Calais, which remained for 200 years an 

j; English port, valuable for purposes of trade, and as an 
ever open door to France. It is said that when Calais 
had been starved into surrender. King Edward demanded 

i the lives of six chief citizens as a ransom for the rest. 

I Freely offering themselves, six of the principal 

f men repaired to his camp, with ropes around 
their necks, bearing the keys of the city, and were ordered 
to execution. But Queen Philip'pa had just arrived from 
England to render account of her own successful manage- 
ment of the war with the Scots. She fell on her knees 

! and begged, as her reward, the lives of these brave men. 

t -The king could not refuse her ; and, after entertaining 

I them most generousl}-, she sent them back to their families 
loaded with gifts. (§§477, 502). 

389. In a subsequent war, King John was defeated and 
made prisoner, at Poitiers, A. D. 1356, by a far inferior 



2 28 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

force under the Black Prince. By the Treaty of Bretigny he 
engaged to pay an immense sum of money for his ransom; 
but the king of England at the same time renounced his 
claims to the French crown, with all the fiefs of William 
and Geoffrey (§350). He kept Aquitaine, which was made 
an almost independent sovereignty for Prince Edward. 

390. The Black Prince died a year before his father; 
and his son, Richard II., became king in 1377. The wars 
iiad brought intolerable suffering to the poor people of both 
countries; and peasant insurrections, called in France the 
Jaccjucric, in England, Wat T)'ler's rebellion, alarmed the 

ruling classes. One hundred thousand armed 
'^ '■ insurgents marched upon London, plundering 
and murdering those who opposed them. Richard met 
the mob with great coolness, and disarmed their rage by 
promising all they asked. He did, indeed, try to secure 
freedom for the serfs; but, in so doing, he offended tlie 
nobles, without gaining any thing for the people. Richard 
was unable to restrain the ambition of his three uncles, 
who quarreled for the chief power; and he made an 
enemy of his cousin, Henry of Lancaster. Returning from 
exile upon his father's death, Henry was joined by a great 
army, including most of the royal forces. With consent 
of parliament he assumed the crown, and put Richard in 
prison, where he is supposed to have died, A. D. 1400. 

391. During this reign, Wic'liffe preached against the 
abuses which had crept into the church. Though among 
the most learned of Oxford doctors, he spoke and wrote 
a language which the poor people could understand. His 
greatest work was a translation of the Bible into their 
common tongue. He was bitterly opposed, but he had a 
powerful friend in John of Gaunt, the father of Henry of 
Lancaster. After his death, his bones were burned as these 
of a heretic, and his ashes were thrown into the Avon; but 
his teachings were already the property of the world (p. 245). 



THE MAID OF ORLEANS. 229 

392. The House of Lancaster. — Henry IV. (A. D. 
1399- 1413), tried to please the clergy by persecuting the 
Lollards, or followers of Wicliffe; but the insecurity of his 
title was shown by three formidable insurrections. His 
son, Henry V. (A. D. 1413-1422), was more popular. 
Already as prince he had contributed much to the victory 
at Shrewsbury, by which the rebellion of the Percies was 
overthrown; but in times of peace he seemed wholly given 
wp to gay and dissolute company. Some have thought 
that this was merely an artifice to disarm his father's 
susi)icion; for Henry IV. was haunted by the fear that his 
son might treat him as he himself had treated Richard. 

393. Upon the king's death, however, Henry V. dis- 
missed all his wild companions, called about him his 
father's best counselors, and bestowed especial favor upon 
one who had been honest enough to rebuke his own 
misconduct. He soon afterwards prepared for war with 
France,^ whose wretched condition, under a crazy king, a 
wicked queen, and recklessly selfish nobles, made conquest 
seem an easy matter. At the field of Agincourt, 

Henry's brave yeomanry gained a victory over 
four times their number of French. The treaty of Troyes 
made Henry regent of France during the life of Charles 
VL, whose daughter he was to marry, and upon whose 
death he was to succeed to the crown. Two years later, 
Henry V. and his infant son entered Paris in triumph. 
But the triumph did not last long. The two 

AD 1422. 

kings died in one year, and the crowns of 
France and England rested upon the baby brow of Henry 
VI., who during his life-time of 50 years never became, 
in intellect, more than a feeble child. §§409, 410. 

394. For six years the English ruled France, the heir 
to the crown having only a few cities south of the Loire. 
In 1428 came a wonderful change of fortune. Jo'an of 
Arc, a simple peasant girl, believed herself inspired of 



230 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



heaven to rescue France. With her consecrated banner 
she appeared at the head of the dauphin's array, and 
excited such hopes in the French, or such terror in the 
Enghsh, that the latter broke up their camp and withdrew 
from Orleans, which they had nearly taken. She then 
conducted the dauphin to Rheims, where he 
was crowned; and this event did much to turn 
the hearts of the French toward their native king. To 
the disgrace of Charles VII. and the English chiefs, the 
"Maid of Orleans," having been taken prisoner, was con- 
demned and burnt as a witch. 



A. D. 1429 



395. From amidst the smoke and flame of her execution, 
Joan declared that (iod's vengeance would pursue the 
English into their own land. Her prophecy was fulfilled. 
Step by step they were driven from all their conquests in 
France; while the incapacity of their king and the quarrels 
of his ministers left England a prey to the worst disorders. 
Henry married Margaret of Anjou, a brave and accom- 
plished princess, but her haughty spirit offended a pow- 
erful party among the English nobles. 

396. The Duke of York now asserted his claim as a de- 
scendant of Edward III. by an elder line than the king 
(see Table, p, 434). Thence arose the "Wars of the 
Roses,'' so called because the Yorkists wore a white rose, 
and the Lancastrians a red one as their badge. The Duke 
of York was slain in the battle of Wakefield; but his 
claim to the crown was inherited by his eldest son, who, 
in 1 46 1, was acknowledged as King Edward IV. Henry 
VI. found a more peaceful abode in the Tower. 

397. House of York. — Among the foremost figures 
of that time is the Earl of Warwick, who was called the 
"Kingmaker." His estates covered many miles of territory; 
his armed followers were a mighty host; and victory leaned 
to either side where he declared himself. He aided largely 
in the elevation of die House of York, but, being griev- 



/ 

THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 23,1 



ously offended by Edward IV., he transferred his allegiance 
to Henry VI., whom he released from prison, while Edward 
fled beyond the sea. But Edward IV. returned, and the 
great earl was slain at Barnet. Young Edward of Lan- 
caster was defeated and basely murdered at 
Tewkesbury, and his unhappy father died a 
few days later in prison. The reign of Edward IV. (A. D. 
1461 -1483) is signalized by the introduction of printing 
into England by William Caxton,^ in 1474. 

398. Edward V. was but thirteen years old at his father's 
death. His uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, having 
gained possession of the young king and his brother, caused 
them to be murdered in the Tower, and made himself 
King Richard III. Richard was. undoubtedly, the ablest 
of his family; and though he had "waded 

through slaughter to a throne," he ruled 
wisely and well. But the nobles were horrified by his 
crimes, and called for Henry Tu'dor, a descendant of 
the House of Lancaster, who had been living in exile 
(see Table p. 433). 

399. Henry landed in England with a small army, which 
was joined by half of Richard's forces, and, 

, . , , AD. 1485. 

m the Battle of Bosworth, gained a complete 

victory. King Richard was slain; his crown, found upon 

a thorn-bush, was placed on the head of the conqueror, 

who was hailed with the cry, "God save King Henry the 

Seventh!" 

The Wars of the Roses had lasted 30 years. By exter- 
minating many noble families, they had undermined the 
feudal system, which, in England, may be said to have 
ended with the Plantagenets. With the accession of the 
Tudors, modern history begins. 

Read Green's "Short History," Chapter v, and Chapter vi, Sec- 
tions 1-3. For illustration, read Shakespeare's Henry IV., V., VI,, 
and Ricliard HI.; and Bulwer's "Last of the Barons." 



232 medialVal history. 



NOTES. 

1. These were Normandy and Guienne (the more modern name for 
Aquitaine); Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Poitou. 

Norinandy was inherited from his maternal grandfatlier, King Henry 
tlie First; Anjou, Maine, and Touraine from his fatlier, (ieoffrcy Planta- 
genet; Guienne and Poitou were tlie dowry of his wife, EU-anor of 
Aquitaine. It must be remembered that France was tlien bounded on 
tlae east by tlie rivers Meuse and Rhone, and was less extensive, botli 
to the north and to the south, than at present. See ji 402. 

" Previous to her marriage with Henry II. of England, Eleanor of 
Aquitaine had been the wife of Louis VII. of France (g 400), a man 
greatly inferior to herself in intellect, taste, and force of character, but 
earnestly pious, and of grave and decorous manners. The young south- 
ern princess fretted and struggled against the change from the homage 
and flattery of the poetical knights of her native court to the severity 
of principle and action exhibited by Louis, the pupil of the great Abbot 
Suger, and the disciple of the rigid Cistercian, St. Bernard. Yet, tor a 
time she yielded to the superior influences which surrounded her. 
When Bernard preached at Vezelay (^;W7), rousing the nations of Europe 
to undertake a new Crusade, Eleanor heard and was excited by his el- 
oquence. Louis VII, undertook to conduct the holy war, and Eleanor 
accompanied him, but in Palestine she showed such levity of conduct 
that Louis, on his return home, determined to obtain a divorce."— .E. 
M. Sewell. 

2. In the first year of Henry's reign, Becket was raised to the dignity 
of cliancellor, having won the king's favor by his great abilities and 
pleasing accomplishments. 

"The private intercourse of the sovereign with his minister was on 
the most intimate footing. When serious business was over, says Fitz 
Stephen, they played together like boys of the same age. 

"They were companions in all nianner of amusements; and often, 
when the chancellor was at dinner, entertaining, as his custom was, a 
splendid party of nobles and knights, the king, in returning from the 
cliase, would walk in without ceremony, and would either drink a cup 
and begone, or leap over the table and seat himself as a guest. . . . 

"In procuring the chancellor's elevation to the primacy, Henry no 
doubt supposed that he should continue to find him a ready instru- 
ment of his will, especially in matters relating to the church. His sur- 
prise, therefore, was great at receiving from the new archbishop a re- 
quest that he would provide himself with another chancellor. Not a 
word had Becket breathed as to retiring from the king's service until, 
by Henry's earnest exertion, he had been seated on the throne of Can- 
terbury. But Becket was no longer the servant of the Crown, but purely 
the representative of tlie Church; he was independent of the king; he 
might become his antagonist, and this seemed very like a preparation 
for coining out as such."— r. C. Robertson, Life o/ Becket. 

The main point of opposition was in the claim of the Church to judge 
all crimes committed by persons in her employ, independently of the sec- 
ular courts. In 1164, Henry sumtnoned a great council of bisliops and no- 
bles at his palace of Clarendon. With their consent an important charter, 
called "The Constitutions of Clarendon," was given to the people, requir- 
ing even clerical criminals to be judged by the civil laws. Becket, after 
violent resistance, swore to support the Constitutions; but afterwards 
professed to be deeply penitent for his sin in so doing. He fled to France, 
where King Louis, having many causes for jealousy against Henry 
gladly received him with the honors due to a saint and a martyr. Dur. 
i'ng liis two years' absence, the king's eldest son was crowned as asso 
ciate-monarch by the Archbishop of York, though that ceremony could 
only be lawfully performed by the primate. King Henry, having after- 
wards passed over to Normandy, Becket returned to England and was 
received by clergy and people with shouts of welcome. When Henry 
heard of his triumphal entrance into Rochester and Southwark, he ex- 
claimed, "Is there none of all my servants who will rid me of this pes- 
tilent priest?" Four gentleinen of his household understonci these words 
as intimating a desire lor liecket's death ; and, hastening l<i Kngland, they 
murdered the archbishop within his own cathedral at Canterbury. His 



NOTES. 233 

tomb was long afterwards revered as the shrine of a martyr, and, in a 
single year, 100,000 pilgrims are said to have flocked thither from all 
parts of Christendom. 

3. At Runnimede, on the Thames, the two parties met in conference; 
and the result of the meeting was the king's signing Magna Charta, 
the foundation of English constitutional liberty. Clergy, barons, and 
people were alike secured in their rights of person and property. Taxes 
were not to be levied without the consent of the Great Council. No 
person should be seized or imprisoned, or outlawed or exiled, or in any 
way brought to ruin save by lawful judgment of his peers. " We will 
sell to no man, we will not deny or delay to any man, justice or right." 
The poor man, even if convicted of crime, could not be deprived of his 
tenement, the merchant of his goods, or the peasant of his wagon. 
Twenly-four barons were charged with enforcing upon the king the 
fulfillment of his solemn oath. "They Iiave given me four-and-twenty 
over-kings!" cried John, in a rage, as he threw himself on the floor and 
gnawed like a wild beast at whatever came within his reach.— Hi.st. of 
Eng. pp. 79-81. 

4. King Henry's extortions and his slavery to foreign favorites dis- 
gusted his brave barons. Several times he was made to renew the Great 
Charter, and to pronounce the most direful curses upon whomsoever 
should dare to infringe it; but scarcely had the awful words died away 
among the arches of Westminster Hall, when every promise was broken. 
Chief of the French courtiers was Sinum do Montfort, whom the king 
had made Earl of Leicester, and honored with the hand of his own sis- 
ter. But, unlike his countrymen. Earl Simon faithfully served the peo- 
ple among whom he dwelt, and was rewarded by their love. ... In 
1257, a terrible famine visited England. King Richard (brother of Henry 
III.— crowned as king of the Romans at Aix-la-Chapelle, 1256; ^353, 365), 
sent over a supi)ly of corn from Germany for the relief of the people; 
but King Henry seized and sold it for his own advantage. This enraged 
the barons, who met in arms at Oxford, and insisted upon a Council of 
Regency, to be chosen, half by the king, and half by themselves. Par- 
liament was ordei'ed to meet three times every year, whether summoned 
by the king or not, and " twelve honest men " were to represent the com- 
monalty. . . . 

After the victory at Lewes, in which the king and his son were made 
prisoners, the Earl of Leicester, now really at the head of the realm, 
summoned a parliament in the king's name, to be composed of two 
citizens from each borough, and two knights froin each shire, in addi- 
tion to the bishops and nobles. This was a great event, for it was the 
first meeting of the English Commons according to their present con- 
stitution.— /rf., pp. 84, 8.5. 

5. The French king, Charles V., had broken the Peace of Bretigny 
(§389) not long after it was signed; and, before the death of Edward III., 
all Aquitaine, excepting the cities of Bordeaux and Bayonne, had been 
lost to the English. The great nobles preferred to be vassals of France, 
but the cities clung to English rule, which gave them greater freedom 
and commercial advantages. The treaty thus broken on the French 
side, the English sovereigns resumed the title of Kings of France, which 
they never ceased to bear until the beginning of the present century, 
though no serious attempt at conquest was ever made after the time of 
Henry the Sixth. 

6. "William Caxton was a successful merchant in London, when 
he was commissioned by Edward IV., in 1464, to negotiate a commercial 
treaty with Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Three years later the 
Duke was succeeded by his son, Charles the Bold, who, in 1468, married 
Margaret of York, sister of the King of England. This lady appointed 
Caxton to be a member of her court, and employed him in translating 
a history of Troy from French into English. Having learned the new 
art of printing at Cologne, CJaxton printed his translation about 1474— 
the first book ever printed in the Engli.sh language. Subsequently, he 
carried his press to London. Though he acquired the art in his sixtieth 
year, and died in his eightieth, sixty-five books— of many of which he 
was author or translator as well as printer— bear witness to the indus- 
try and zeal of this father of English publishers. 



CHAPTER X. 



HOUSE OP^ CAPET IN FRANCE. 




Louis XI. and his Barber. 



GUIS VI. (A. D. 1108-1137) i 
gave the first communal privi- j 
leges to French towns — in this 
and other ways lessening the 
power of his great vassals and 
raising up a class of industri- 
ous citizens between nobles and 
serfs. His son, Louis VII. 
(1137 — 1180), granted many 
more of these charters, and 
founded 'new cities for the re- 
ception of serfs who escaped 
from their masters. By marry- 
ing the heiress of Aquitaine, 
Louis annexed that great terri- 
tory to the crown (see Map 7), but the misconduct of 
the queen led him to part with her and her lands, which 
were soon afterward transferred to Henry II. of England 
(§381). A life-long rivalry grew from this. Louis not 
only sheltered the exiled archbishop Becket (§ 382), but 
even aided Queen El'eanor and her sons in their rebellion 
against Henry, (see note, p. 232). 

401. Philip II. Augustus (A. D. 1 180- 1223) curbed 
the great nobles by his wise management. In his reign 
Pope Innocent HI. declared a crusade against Ray'mond, 
Count of Toulouse, for having sheltered his own subjects, 
the Albigenses, whose religious belief differed from that 
of the Roman Church. Even their enemies admitted that 
(234) 



I 



REIGN OF SAINT LOUIS. 235 

their religion made them obedient to all just laws, and 
that they were the most industrious, orderly, and valuable 
members of any community. The king took little notice 
of the contest; but many of his vassals, foremost of whom 
was Simon de Montfort, father of the great English earl 
of Leicester (§384), hastened to join the crusade. 

402. The war raged more than twenty years. Towns, 
villages, and fertile fields — the most prosperous region in 
Europe — were laid waste; the songs of the troubadours 
(4^427) ceased; and their very language was smitten with 
decay. The war went on, through the short reign of 
Louis VIII. (1223- 1226), and ended in that of his son, 
by the addition of all Count Raymond's dominions, either 
by direct surrender or by marriage, to the royal family. 
France thus became a greater maritime power; for before 
this it had not reached the Mediterranean. 

403. The crusades of the good King Louis IX. (A. D. 
1226- 1270) have been mentioned (i^l 354, 355). His 
reign in France was marked by a cessation of feudal vio- 
lence; the nobles no longer had power of life and death 
over their serfs ; but uniform laws were enforced through- 
out the kingdom. On certain days all men might bring 
their complaints to the king,^ who sat under a tree in 
the forest of Vincennes, ready to do justice and redress 
wrongs, without the delay incident to the best of courts. 
Not content with doing justly himself, Louis restored all 
lands that had been wrongfully seized by his father and 
grandfather. Even foreign princes sometimes referred their 
causes to him ; in England he helped to reconcile Henry 
III. with his barons (§ 384). 

404. Philip III. inherited a great tract of land, now in 
the south of France, which brought him in contact with 
the neighboring princes of vSpain and Italy. It happened 
that his uncle, Charles of Anjou, was engaged in a fierce 
rivalry with the king of Aragon for the possession of 



236 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. 



Sicily; and this led to the first long foreign war in which 
France was ever engaged. It was during this war that 
the Sicilian Vespers occurred (i^ 366). Philip IV. (A. D. 
1285- 1314) is called the Fair, but the term applies to his 
])erson, and not to his conduct. His ambitious schemes 
made him always in want of money, which he e.xtorted 
in turn from Jews, abbots, Flemish merchants, and, finally, 
from the Knights Templars- (§ 360). Pope Clement V., 
having removed his court from Rome to Avignon, was 
Philip's obedient tool. By their joint orders the Grand 
Master, Jacques de Mo'lay, was burnt to death. The 
order of Templars was dissolved in France, and, though 
their lands and fortresses were given to the Knights of 
St. John, their immense wealth in gold went into the 
coffers of the king. 

405. Philip's three sons, Louis X., Philip V., and 
Charles IV., all succeeded him within fourteen years, 
A. D. 1314-1328. The infant son of Louis died when 
only four days old. His brothers left only daughters. 

The ancient custom^ of the Franks had lately 
been made a law, excluding women from the 
throne. The crown, therefore, passed to Philip of Valois 
(A. D. 1328- 1350), a grandson of Philip III. 

406. House of Valois. — The rival claims of Edward 
III.,^ the battles of Crecy and Poitiers, and the fall of 
Calais have already been described (^S 387 -389). The 

wars were interrupted by the Black Death, 

A. D. 1348-1351. ^ . , ^ , ., 1 ■ 1 

a frightful pestilence, which, sweeping over 
Europe, destroyed, in three years, nearly half the popu- 
lation. The truce gave leisure to thousands of hireling 
soldiers, who roamed over the country, robbing and mur- 
dering at their will. Even the pope had to ransom him- 
self with 40,000 crowns. The poor peasants, driven to 
desperation by famine, pestilence, and manifold oppres- 
sions, turned upon their masters and. in some instances, 



FRANCE UNDER CHARLES VI. 237 



demolished castles and massacred their inhabitants. Their 
ignorant warfare was, of course, speedily put down, and 
they were hunted to death like wild beasts. 

407. King John (A. 1). 1350- 1364) was four years a 
prisoner, while, in addition to other miseries, Charles the 
Bad of Navarre, another claimant to the French crown, 
made much mischief in the kingdom. Charles V. (1364- 
1380) was called the ]Visc\—\\\'~^ wisdom had been learned 
in a hard school. Both as regent during his father's 
captivity, and afterwards as king, he managed so wisely 
that, though he seldom took the field in person, his great 
captains'5 drove the English from all their conquests (§389). 

408. The kingdoms of England and France were placed, 
after his death, in very similar circumstances: Richard II., 
in the one (§390), and Charles VI. (A. D. 1380-1422), 
in the other, were minors — each at the mercy of three 
powerful uncles," who used the public treasures to help their 
own ambition. In Naples, the House of Anjou (§ 404) 
had ended in Queen Joan'na, who, having no 
children, adopted Louis, uncle of Charles VI., 

as her heir. This adoption cost France more than a hun- 
dred years of war. The Duke of Anjou, seizing all the 
gold he could lay his hands on, marched into Italy, where 
he and most of his army died of the plague (note 6, p. 240). 

409. The princes who stayed at home, made still more 
trouble. The Duke of Burgundy" married the heiress of 
Flanders, and thus became riclier tlian any sovereign 
prince in Europe. His son murdered his cousin, the duke 
of Orleans, and, a few years later, was himself murdered 
by a servant of his \ictim. Believing that the dauphin, 
who saw the crime, had planned, or at least permitted it, 
the new duke of Burgundy joined the English who had 
invaded the country (^393). The king had now become 
a hopeless maniac. Henry V., of England, married his 
daughter, and was proclaimed regent of France. But the 



238 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

crazy king and his son-in-law died within eight weeks of 
each other, A. D. 1422. 

410. The infant son of Henry and Catherine of France 
was crowned at Paris, while the true heir to the crown 
was so poor that he is said to have been arrested by a 
shoemaker, whose bill he could not pay. His fortunes 
were retrieved by the interposition of Joan of Arc^(§ 394). 
Dissensions among the English saved France. In spite 
of his own indolence, Charles VH. (A. D. 1422-1461) 
regained all that himself and his father had lost, and 
only Calais remained to the English of all their conquests 
in France. 

411. Louis XI. (A. D. 1461-1483), son of Charles 
VII., was a far abler man than his father, but his fals- 
ity of character made him one of the most contemptible 
figures in history. While dauphin,^ having incurred his 
father's displeasure, he took refuge with Philip the Good, 
duke of Burgundy, who received liim with great gener- 
osity. Louis proved his gratitude by poisoning the mind 
of the duke's only son with unfilial suspicions, and tam- 
pering with his servants. He and Charles of Burgundy 
Avere ever afterwards enemies and rivals. 

412. The great effort of Louis' reign, was to exalt the 
power of the crown by weakening the Church and the 
nobles. His great vassals joined against him in a "League 
of the Public Weal," which had, at one time, 100,000 
men on foot. Louis dissolved this force more by gold 
than steel. He stirred up rebellions in the Flemish cities, 
and once was caught in the trap which he had set, 
being imprisoned, by Charles, in the tower of Peronne. 

413. Charles the Bold, as he is called, having made 
himself master of all the Netherlands, by purchase or 
inheritance, wished to revive the "Middle Kingdom" of 
Lothaire (see Map No. 7, and § 314, note). The em- 
peror, Frederic HI., promised to crown him at Treves, 



LAST DAYS OF LOUIS XI. 239 

but, changing his mind, stole away in the night, leaving 
Charles with his unconsecrated crown. Louis stirred the 
Swiss to attack Charles, who was defeated by 
them at Granson and Morat, and shortly after- 
wards slain at Nancy, in a battle with the duke of Lor- 
raine. The king of France seized his duchy of Burgundy; 
but the rich inheritance of the Netherlands passed, with 
the hand of the young duchess Mary, to Maximil'ian of 
Austria (§424). 

414. Louis suffered the natural consequences of a life 
of fraud in the wretched suspicions which haunted his 
last years. He shut himself in a lonely castle and ordered 
his archers to shoot at every living thing that approached. 
Even his own children were excluded; his constant com- 
panions were Oliver le Daim, barber and hangman, and 
James Coettier, astrologer and physician. The latter gov- 
erned Louis through his superstition by declaring that his 
own death would shortly precede that of the king. Never 
was man's health more cared for than that of this wily 
doctor. But at length the wretched king died, leaving 
his only son, at the age of fourteen, deformed in body 
and feeble in mind. The reign of Charles VIIL (A. D, 
1483 -1498) belongs, properly, to modern history. 

Point out, on Maps No. 7 and II, Granson, Morat, Crecy, Poitiers, 
Calais. The duchy of Burgundy. The Netherlands (named, §512, 
note ) . 

Read Michelet's History of France ; Kirk's Charles the Bold ; 
Scott's Quentin Durward and Anne of Geierstein ; De Quincey's Joan 
of Arc, in his Miscellaneous Essays ; and Harriet Parr's Life and 
Death of Jeanne d'Arc. 

NOTES. 

1. This was an advantage under so good a king, but it was dangerous, 
because it increased tlie royal prerogative, whicli was sure to pass into 
less worthy hands than his. The English institutions, established during 
the same .years, were better, for they lodged power where a greater 
number could be held responsible for the right use of it (see ?384, and 
note). The policy begun by the justice of St. Louis was continued by 
the ambition of his successors, and the 102 years dating from the com- 



240 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. 



mencement of his reign are called by Sismondi the Age of the I^awyers — 
a century in wliich the legal powers of the crown were established 
above the claims of the feudal chiefs. Much that was good in the 
character and reign of Louis, was due to his mother, Blanche of Castile, 
who managed the kingdom with great ability and firmness during his 
minority. Louis was only eleven years of age at his father's death. 

2. This order, which had consisted at its foundation, about A. D. 1124, 
of onl.v nine poor knights, now numbered 15,000 of the most splendid 
chivalry in the world. Their fortresses were the strongest in Europe, 
and their Grand Master had the <lignity of a sovereign prince. They 
were independent of all kings, even those in whose realms their castles 
were situated; and doubtless there was reason for objection to so great 
a power in irresponsible hands. But the niannei' of tlieir suppression 
was iniquitous. The.y were accused of Mt)iiannuedanisni, atheism, and 
idolatry, any one of whicli charges must, of necessity, exclude the other 
two. The witnesses against them were examined by torture, and after- 
wards indignantly denied the truth of what they had affirmed. Upon 
this they were sentenced to be burned as apostates. Jacques de Molay, 
the (xrand Master of the Order, was immured seven years in a dungeon 
until his intellect became disordered by suffering and deprivation of 
light. His defense was then refused, and he was sentenced, with two 
companions, to the stake. From the midst of the flames he summoned 
the Pope and the king of France to meet him, ere long, at the bar of 
(iod. Both died'within the year l.'iU. 

The character of a majority of Templars is probably not too severely 
drawn in that of Brian de BoisGuilbert in Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott. 

3. The Salic Law, so called because it was founded upon a custom of 
the Salian Franks (note, p. 173), has ever since prevailed in France, 
though rejected by Spain (§727), where a brancli of the French House of 
Bourbon has reigned, with' a few years exception, since 1713. The orig- 
inal Salic custom, however, referred to property and not to dominion. 

4. Edward III. was a grandson of Philip IV., of France; and he 
affected to ihink i§387) that though his mother, Isabella, could not reign 
herself, slie could transmit a right to him. This reasoning applied bet- 
ter, however, to Queen Jane of Navarre, who was daughter of Louis X., 
and to her sou, Charles the Bad (ji407). The right which King Edward 
hoped to maintain was only the right of the strongest ; thougli he was, 
doubtless, provoked to war by the attempts of Philip VI. to get posses- 
sion of Aquitaine (HOO). 

5. The greatest of these leaders was Bertrand Duguesclin, whom Hume 
calls "the first consummate general that had .vet appeared in [raodernl 
Eui'ope." Having no followers of his own, he placed himself, accord- 
ing to the custom of the time, at the head of a compan.v of adventurers, 
and first distinguished himself in a war for the Duchy of Brittany, in 
which the kings of France and England supported opposing claimants. 
Having thus attracted the attention of Charles V., he was made Con- 
stable of France (tlie highest military office in the kingdom) about 1370. 
His last act was the siege of a fortress in Languedoc. The English com- 
nrander had iiromiscd conditionally to surrender on a certain day. 
Me mwliile I>ugiicsclin died of disease, but the besieged commander 
kept his faith, and, marching out with his garrison, placed the keys on 
the coffin of the dead hero. 

6. These were the dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, in En- 
gland; and of An.jou, Berri, and Burgundy, in France. 

King Robert of Naples, grandson of Charles of Anjou (see g 366 and 
note), had been succeeded by his granddaughter Joanna, who, at the 
age of sixteen, married her cousin, Andrew of Hungary. The boorish 
manners of the king-consort displeased the elegant court of Joanna, 
and his assumed claim to govern in his own riglit alarmed her Nea- 
politan counselors. King Andrew was murdered, A. D. 1345, by the 
adherents, though it may be hoped without tlie consent, of his wife; 
and his brother, the king of Hungary, avenged his death by invading the 
Italian kingdom and expelling I lie queen. Having gained the Pope's 
favor l)y ceding Avignon to him, she was restored to her kingdom in 



NOTES. 241 

1352; but, having no children, she, in 1381, adopted the Frencli prince 
as lier lieir. Joanna lias been called the Mary Stuart ^see g 504) of Italy, 
and some incidents of her eventful life do indeed call to mind the 
Scottish queen. 

7. This was Philip the Bold, who, as a boy of fourteen years, had 
fought by his father's side at Poitiers (g 889), and, with him," had been 
carried a prisoner to England. His bravery was rewarded with the great 
Duchy of Burgundy, whose first line of French dukes soon afterward 
(1361) expired. "Thus commenced that famous line of dukes which 
played so great a part in the history of France during the four- 
teenth and tifteenth centuries, and by the splendor of its achievements 
and the magnificence of its patronage rivaled the greatest dynasties of 
the time. Philip's marriage with Margaret brought him the countships 
of Burgundy (Franche Coiutfi), Flanders, Artois, Rethel, and Nevers, 
and, at a later period, he purchased Charolais from the Count of Au- 
vergne. He was succeeded, 1104, by John the Fearless, who was assas- 
sinated on the Bridge of Montereau, 1419, and left the duchy to his son, 
Philip the Good. ... By very questionable proceedings Philip ob- 
tained possession of Hainault and Holland. Namur was purchased in 
1429, and the following year Brabant and Limburg also fell into his 
grasp. In 14.3.5 there were yielded to him, by treaty with France, Macon, 
Auxerre, Bar-sur-Seine, and various other towns in that district. His 
son, Charles the Bold (§§ 411-413), followed in the same course of territo- 
rial aggrandizement, and even began to aim at the founding of a great 
Gallo Belgian kingdom, but his splendid plans came to an untimely 
enil with his death at the battle of Nancy." 

8. Joan d' Are was born about 1411, in the little village of Dom- 
Remy, in Lorraine, of poor but excellent parents. In her childhood she 
saw and heard many proofs of the misery of her country, desolated as It 
was, not only by the wars of the great nobles, but by the ravages of 
free companies of soldiers, who, responsible to no government, roamed 
over the land, lobbing and plundering at their will, or sold their serv- 
ices alternately to either party which would restrain them the least 
and pay them the most. Joan " was untiring in her efforts to relieve 
the sufferings of the poor about her, and even sold her bed and the 
greater part of her clothing in order to procure them supplies. She 
afterwards stated that as early as the age of thirteen she received com- 
mands from Heaven to go and liberate France." Her parents tried to 
suppress her enthusiasm, but the "voices" and "visions" continued to 
haunt her, and, in her eighteenth year, she could no longer disobey. 
Though the French officers treated her pretensions with scorn, she 
gained the favor of the Dauphin, and set forth, bearing her consecrated 
banner at the head of her troop, for Orleans, which was then besieged 
by the English, and at the very point of surrender. She first threw 
herself into the town with a supply of much-needed provisions; then, 
by a succession of sorties, so confounded the besiegers that they aban- 
doned the siege and departed. When the second part of her mission 
was fulfilled (§394) she saluted the Dauphin as king, and begged his pei'- 
hiission to return to the care of her sheep. But Charles, hoping to gain 
further advantage from her presence with his soldiers, refused to let her 
go. Her " voices " now ceased to be heard; and the high spirit that had 
sustained her seemed to fail. Wounded and a prisoner, ,she pined in 
her dungeon for the sunshine and green fields of her native hamlet. 
Yet, when brought before her judges, she steadfastly maintained the 
integrity of her motives in all that she had done, and she died declar- 
ing that her voices had not deceived her. A secretary of the king of 
England exclaimed, "We are lost, we have burned a saint!" and even 
her executioner was overwhelmed with remorse. 

9. Charles V. was the first king who had borne thetitle of Dauphin. 
Dauphiny had been a part, first of the kingdom of Burgundy (note, p. 
141), and afterwards of the empu'e. Its most important county was the 
Viennais, pertaining to the ancient city of Vienne (§2.54). Count Hu- 
bert II., having lost his only son in 1335, made over his lands to King 
Philip VI. with the condition that the privileges and independence of 
his province should be maintained. After the count's death, his title 
was always borne by the eldest son of the reigning king. 

Hist.— 16. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE EMPIRE AND THE CHURCH. 




John Huss. 



HR history of Germany during 
the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries is a story of turbu- 
lence and misrule (see § 363). 
A quarrel, over the choice of flj 
an emperor, occasioned a dis- 
tracting civil war, A. D. 13 14- 
1328. Most of tlie nobles 
cliose Frederic of Austria;^ but 
the primate and the people of 
the great towns preferred Louis 
of Bavaria, who at length took 
his rival prisoner at the battle 
of Miihldorf, and reigned, 
though not in peace, until 1347. 

416. His successor, Charles IV., settled the rank and 
privileges of the seven Electors, whose duty it was to 
choo.se the emperors and assist at their coronation. They 
were the three archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, 
and four lay-princes : the king of Bohemia, the duke of 
Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg, and the count- 
palatine of the Rhine. Until he was crowned at Rome, 
the chosen prince bore only the title of Emperor-r/^r/. 
His successor was usually chosen during his life-time, and 
was called King of the Romans. 

417. Wenceslaus (A. D. 1378-1400), son of Charles, 
cared only for his kingdom of Bohemia, and neglected his 
imperial duties, spending much of his time, moreover, in 

(242) 



COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 243 



drunken revelings. At length, in 1400, the electors de- 
posed him and gave the crown to Count Ru'pert of the 
Rhine (A. I). 1400- 1410), an energetic and able ruler 
who would have done much for Germany if his reign had 
been long enough. 

418. Sigismund (A. D. 1410-1438), brother of Wences- 
laus, was next chosen." His first care was to call together 
a general council for tlie reformation of the Church — a 
duty which had been considered as devolving on the 
emperors ever since Constantine convened the Council of 
Nice (§267). The free city of Constance was appointed 
for the meeting; and thither came 18,000 clergymen, in- 
cluding patriarchs and bishops ; hundreds of learned men 
from the universities; sovereign princes, or their embassa- 
dors; last of all, Pope John XXIII. and the Emperor 
Sigismund. 

419. The occasion was serious enough to justify the 
imposing display. Three popes were claiming obedience 
in France, Spain, and Italy: the damaging truths which 
they told of each other were undermining men's reverence 
for the Church ; and several great reformers, especially in 
England and Bohemia, were preaching boldly against the 
evil lives of the priesthood. Though the Council had 
come together for purposes of reform, among 

its first decisive acts was to burn a reformer. 
John Huss,'*one of the great doctors of the University of 
Prague, was summoned to answer for his teachings, and 
the imperial word of Sigismund was pledged for his safe 
return. He was tried and condemned as a heretic ; and 
chose death rather than denial of what he believed to be 
the truth. The princes and prelates who stood around 
the emperor, saw a deep flush of shame overspread his 
face when the sentence was read. Huss was burnt at the 
stake; and his friend and fellow-professor, Jerome'^ of 
Prague, suffered tlie same fate within a year. 



244 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

420. When the news reached Bohemia, a civil war^broke 
out. Prague, the capital, was taken by the Hussites, and 
monks were every-where put to death in revenge for the 
two martyrs. The popular fury became fiercer when, by 
the death of Wenceslaus in 1419 A. D. (§ 417), the guilty 
Sigismund became king of Bohemia. The war raged 
nearly twenty years ; and, though all the force of the 
empire was exerted against the insurgents, Sigismund only 
gained possession of his kingdom a {t\N months before his 
death. 

421. The Council of Constance deposed all three of the 
rival popes (§419) and elected Ot'to Colon'na,'^ a better 
man than any of them, but who did little to realize the 
needed reforms. Another council met at Basle, in 1431, 
and carried on tlie work begun at Constance. It declared 
that the voice of the whole Church, in general council, 
was of supreme authority, and provided for such assemblies 
at regular intervals. 

422. Pope Euge'nius IV., finding that he could not man- 
age the council at Basle, summoned a rival one at Ferrara, 
where very important visitors were received. These were 
John Palaeol'ogus, emperor of the East, and the patriarch 
of the Greek Church, with a train of courtiers and clergy. 
It may be remembered (§§ 294, 306) that the eastern and 
western churches had separated upon the question of 
image-worship; and they had since been more widely 
parted by a difference of belief. The eastern Ccesar, now 
finding that he could not stand alone against the Turks 
(§§ 340, 378), offered to give up the points in dispute 
and admit the supremacy of the pope, on condition that 
the European princes would come to his aid. The bargain 
was signed and sealed, but the authorities at Constanti- 
nople refused to ratify it; and fifteen years later the eastern 
empire was overthrown. 

423. Upon the death of Sigismund, the crown of the 



REIGN OF FREDERIC III. 245 



western empire was bestowed upon Albert of Austria, his 
son-in-law, and, though still elective and often contested, 
it continued to be worn by the dukes of Austria for more 
than three centuries. 

424. Frederic III.* reigned fifty-three years (A. D. 1440- 
1493), ^^^^ '"'is vacillating character afforded few acts worth 
telling. He secured the marriage of his son Maximilian 
with the young duchess Mary of Burgundy (§ 413), which 
made him lord of her rich inheritance in the Netherlands. 
Mary died young; but, as regent for his son Philip, Max- 
imilian still ruled the Low Countries, and Philip's marriage 
with the heiress of Spain made the Hapsburgs the most 
powerful family in Europe. 

Point out, on Map No. 9, tlie dominions of the Seven Electors. 
Prague. Constance. Basle. Ferrara. 

Read Menzel's History of Germany, Vol. 11., and the Introduction 
to Dyer's Modern Europe; also, Coxa's House of Austria. 

NOTES. 

1. Frederic was eldest son of Albert I., and grandson of Rudolph of 
Haj)sburu (5 865); but the cruelty and avarice of Albert had much di- 
minished tlie good-will formerly felt towards his family. His oppressions 
had driven the Swiss to revolt, and thus led to the rise of a confedera- 
tion of free states. 

Louis of Bavaria was supported by the Ghibellines (§363), and Frederic 
by the Guelfs. After his capture at Miihldorf, in 1322, Frederic signed 
a renunciation of the imperial crown, which was bestowed upon Louis 
at Rome, in 132S. 

2. Sigismund iiad alreadj' for twentj' -three j-ears (g418) been king of 
Hungary, having married a daughter of King Louis of Hungary and 
Poland in 1386. With him began that connection of tlie empire with 
the Hungarian dominions, which, though for a time resisti'd, had im- 
portant effects for centuries. Hungary was now the great Ijattle-ground 
of Europe with the Turks (§379), and their incursions would have taxed 
the best energies of even a braver and abler prince. 

3. It is said that nearly 100,000 people were at one time assembled in 
the little city of Constance, wliicli had only about 7,000 permanent in- 
habitants. The Council itself numlicrerl, at its fullest sessions, 3 patri- 
archs, 20 cardinals, 33 archbisli()i)s, 15i) bisliops, 50 provosts, 1,800 priests, 
and 3(10 doctors nf tlicoloijv, Ix'sides <l('!e<;ati^s from the Hospitallers and 
Teutonic Kniglits («345), and embassadors from the kings of France, En- 
gland, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, .Sweden, Poland, Cyprus, and others. 
Pope John XXIII. presided at the first session, but afterwards resigned 
his pontifical honors and submitted to be contined in the same prison 
where John Huss was awaiting his trial. 

The (Council condemned the doctrines of Wicliffe, and commanded 
that his books should be burnt and his body removed from the conse- 



246 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



crated ground in which it lay (§391). Tliis was done, 33 years alter 
WiclifTe's death. 

4. Huss was born, 1373, at the village of Husinec (or Hussinetz), in 
Southern l^oheuiia. He was appointed, 1402, preacher at the Bethlehem 
Chapel in Prague, and soon incurred censure by advocating (j tl-') the 
doctrines of \V iclilfe, the great English reformer. Communication be- 
tween England and Bohemia had become more frequent through the 
marriage of the Princess Anne, daughter of the Emperor ( luiries IV. 
with Richard II., about 13S0. Unlike her brother Sigismund, Anne fa- 
vored the reformation. She was accompanied to England by many of 
her young countrymen who had come to studj- at Oxford, where Wicliffe 
was then the most distinguished professor. They carried his writings 
home with them; and Huss, when rector of the University of Prague, 
caused them to be translated into the Bohemian language. 

5. Jerome was one of the most distinguished followers of Huss, whose 
doctrines he preached with great eflect in Bohemia, Hungary, and Po- 
land. When his friend was cited before the t'ouncil of Constance, Jerome 
set out to follow and defend him; but, yielding in a moment of weak- 
ness to representations of the great dangers which awaited hei'etics, he 
halted in his journey and would have returned. He was arrested, how- 
ever, and sent in chains to Constance, where he was thrown into prison 
and treated with great cruelty. Being examined three times before the 
Council, he consented at last to retract his adhesion to some of the doc- 
trines of Huss; but he afterwards withdrew his recantation, l)itterly re- 
penting that fear of death had overcome his loyalty to what he still 
believed true. He endured a most cruel execution by flre. May 30, 1416, 
with a heroism that won the admiration of even his enemies. He was 
a very learned man, having received degrees from the three gi'eat uni- 
versities of Paris, Heidelberg, and Cologne. 

6. The greatest Bohemian general was Ziska, who had already dis- 
tinguished himself in wars against the Teutonic knights in the North, 
the Turks in the South, and, in the English service, against the French 
in the battle of Agincourt (§393). Being a loyal Bohemian and a faith- 
ful disciple of Huss, he persuaded the king to avenge the death of the 
former as a national afTront. In spite of his relationship to the emperor, 
Wenceslaus consented, for a time at least, and Ziska took the chief 
command in the armies. In August, 1420, he defeated the imperial army 
near Prague. The next year he lost, in a siege, his only remaining eye: 
but, though totally blind, he still commanded in person, and gained 
many victories. He died 1424, and the chief command devolved upon 
Procopius. Not only Bohemia, but Saxony, Brandenburg, Franconia, 
Bavaria, and Austria were overswept by the desolating storm of war. 
However justly ofTeiided they may have been at first, we can not deny 
that the Hussites carried on the war with needless and revolting bru- 
tality. The Council of Basle (§421) succeeded in reconciling the more 
moderate Hussites, and the extremists were defeated at Lepan, 1434, 
witli the loss of their great general, Procopius. 

7. He took tlie name of Martin V. His personal character was altove 
reproach ; but he disappointed the expectations of the Council by failing 
to carry out its measures for the better discipline of the Church. 

8. Frederic III. was the last emperor crowned at Rome. Indeed, 
the Empire, as such, had entered upon a new phase of its existence, 
and had lost much of its importance. Though several emperors were 
very powei'ful sovereigns, they derived most of their power and all their 
wealth from their personal dominions; while their imperial title gave 
them only the dignity of precedence nmonii European princes. Thus 
Maximilian, the son of Frederic, was indeccl n great ruler, but it was as 
Archduke of Austria, Duke of Styria and Carintliia, and Regent of the 
Netherlands, rather than as Emperor. JNIaxiinilian's grandson, Charles 
v., was the last emperor who went to Italy for coronation; and he re- 
ceived the two crowns of Italy and the empire both together at Bologne, 
Instead of assuming one at Milan and the other at Rome, according to 
the ancient custom (§321). After being chosen by the seven electors, 
the sovereign vvas now formally styled King of Germany and Emperor 
Elect, though he was commonly .spoken of as "Emperor," without wait- 
ing for coronation. 



CHAPTER XII. 



LANCiUAGES AND LITERATURE. 




URING the rude ages, knowledge 
of books belonged only to priests 
and monks. vSome of these were 
wonders of learning, and a few 
were noted teachers. Such were 
the "Venerable Bede,"^ who, 
early in the eighth century, drew 
six hundred English youth about 
him at J arrow, and instructed 
them in all the learning of the 
time ; Ab'elard,- a bold and brill- 
iant thinker, whose disciples 
were numbered by thousands, 
but whose writings were con- 
demned by the Church ; Albert 
the GreatVnd Thomas Aqui'nas;? 
the most learned of theologians ; 
and Roger Ba'con,^ whose lec- 
youth to Oxford, but whose 



A Minnesinger. 

tares attracted thousands of 
experiments in physical science caused him to be impris- 
oned as a sorcerer. 



426. Latin was still the universal language of the 
learned ; so that scholars from the remotest corners of 
Europe listened to the same teachers at the great schools 
of Bologna, Paris, and Oxford. Most of them traveled 
thither on foot, and begged their way as they went. Pov- 
erty was considered no disgrace, when it was willingly 

1247) 



248 MEDIyEVAL HISTORY. 

embraced for the sake of the dearer riches of the mind. 
Among the privileges granted to students of colleges, ba- 
kings and emperors, was a license to obtain their living 
by beggary ! Acquaintance with the great Arabic scholars 
led to new zeal for learning after the crusades, and new 
schools sprang up at Padua, Toulouse, Montpellier, and 
elsewhere. During the twelfth century an intense zeal for 
the study of Roman law became manifest, especially in 
Italy. This may be accounted for by the growth of free- 
dom in the cities (§ 363) during the wars of the Lombard 
League (§ 364) with the German emperors. Subjects of 
despotic governments have to be content with the will of 
their rulers; but free citizens require their judges to give 
reasons for their decisions, drawn either from universal 
principles of justice, or from ancient law ; and hence a 
demand for a class of men learned in the laws, who could 
instruct common citizens concerning their rights. 

427, At the same time most of the languages of Europe 
began to settle into their present forms. Troubadours sang 
songs of love and war in the Provencal tongue ; tnntveres 
of northern France wrote endless tales of chivalry in the 
popular Latin spoken by Franks and Northmen — whence 
such tales are still called romances. The earliest poem in 
the Spanish language rehearses the brave deeds of tlie 
Cid Ruy Diaz, who died A. D. 1099. Modern Italian 
first appears in the poems of Frederic II. (§ 365), and his 
chancellor, Peter de Vin'ea. Later, the great Florentine. 
Dan'te, ^ described his visions of hell, purgatory, and para 
dise in the common speech of Italy. His countrymen, Pe'- 
trarch'^ and Boccac'cio, ^ perfected the Tuscan dialect, the 
one in his sonnets, the other in his prose tales. 

428. The northern nations, which had never been con- 
quered by the Romans, kept their own languages, but 
enriched them with many Roman words. The songs ol 
the troubadours had their echoes in (lerman castles; or, 



LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE. 249 

perhaps we should rather say that the same poetical im- 
pulse spread like a wave over all Europe in the thirteenth 
century, much as the religious and knightly impulse of 
the crusades spread over it in the eleventh; at any rate, 
the great German epic poem of the Nibelungen assumed 
its present form about 12 10, and a swarm of minnesingers 
filled Germany with their songs of love. Old English, as 
written by King Alfred and the monkish historians, be- 
came mingled with tlie ivinancc of the Norman conquer- 
ors, making the modern English which first appears in the 
travels of Sir John Man'deville, '-^ the sermons of Wicliff^, ^ ^ 
and the poems of Chaucer. ^ ^ 

429. The progress of the Turks in conquering the East- 
ern Empire, drove many learned men to take refuge in 
Italy, and the manuscripts which they brought excited 
fresh zeal for the records of antiquity. Petrarch was 
among the greatest promoters of the revival of Learning. 
He spent many years in searching the dusty libraries of 
convents for lost works of the Greek and Roman writers, 
which he copied with his own hand. It was more than 
a hundred years later that Lorenzo de" Medici^- 1.^370), 
who was a poet and scholar, not less than a statesman, 
gave a still greater impulse both to the literature and art 
of Florence. 

Find, on Maps No. 4 and 10, the cities distinguished by the three 
great Universities of the Middle Ages. 

Read Hallam's "Literature of Europe;" Fauriel's History of 
Provencal Poetry, translated by Adler ; Taylor's Survey of German 
Poetry; Campbell's Life of Petrarch; Morley's English Writers, 
before and after Chaucer. J. A. Symonds's Renaissance in Italy, 
Vols. II, lY, V. 

NOTES. 

1. Bede, or Bteda, was not more admired for his great learning, than 
loved and revered for his pure and saintly character. He was born 
about A. D. (>73, in the countv of Durham, in England, and became a 
priest at the age of 30. For the benefit of liis pupils, he compiled famil- 
iar Latin text-books, setting forth all that was then known of astron- 



250 MEDIMVAL HISTORY. 



omy, mathematics, grammar, and music; but his most important work 
is his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, which was written 
in Latin, but afterwards translatfd into Old English by King Alfred 
the Great (§329 and notes'). 

2. "Very early in life Abelard (1079-1142) became the most powerful 
combatant in the intellectual tilting-matches of the schools. Before 
the age of twenty, he had wandered through a great part of France, as 
an errant logician, and had found no combatant who could resist his 
prowess. He arrived at Paris, where the celebrated William of Cham- 
peaux was at the height of his fame. The schools of Paris, which 
afterwards expanded into the renowned university, trembled at the 
temerity of the youth who dared to encounter that veteran in dialectic 
warfare, whose shield had been so long untouched, and who had seemed 
secure in his all-acknowledged puissance. Abelard in a short time was 
the pupil, the rival, the conqueror, and of course an object of implaca- 
ble animosity to the vanquished chieftain of the schools. He seized 
at once on the weak parts of his teacher's system, and in his pride of 
strengtli scrupled not to trample him in the dust. . . . 

"TluTi' was no branch of knowledge on which Abelard did not be- 
lieve himself, and was not believed, competent to give the fullest in- 
struction. Not merely did all Paris and the adjacent districts throng to 
his school, but there was no country so remote, no road so difficult, but 
that the pupils defied the toils and perils of the way. Even Rome, the 
great teaclier of the world in all arts and sciences, acknowledged the 
superior wisdom of Abelard, and sent her sons to submit to his disci- 
pline. ... So great was the concourse of scholars, that lodging and 
provision could not be found for the countless throng. On the one side 
he was an object of the most excessive admiration, on the other of the 
most implacable hatred." 

"Abelard fled. . . . After some delay he found a wild retreat, 
where, like the hermits of old, he built his solitary cabin of osier and 
of thatch." Almost immediately "the desert was peopled around him 
by his admiring scholars. . . . They built lowly hovels, . . . fed 
on bread and wild herbs .... reposed contentedly on straw and 
chaff. A monastery arose, which had hardly space in its cells for the 
crowding votaries. Abelard called it the Paraclete, a name which, b.y 
its novelty and .seeming presumption, gave new ofTense to his multi- 
plying enemies. . . . His whole system of teaching, the foundation 
and discipline and studies in the Paraclete, could not but be looked 
upon with alarm. This new philosophic community— a community at 
least bound together by no religious vow — ... in which the pro- 
foundest and most awful mysteries were freely discussed, . . . awoke 
tlK' vitiilant jealousy of the two great reformers of the age, Norbert, 
Arclibisliop of Magdeburg, . . . and Bernard, whose abbey of Clair- 
vaux was the model of the most rigorous, most profoundly religious 
monastic life. . . . 

"Abelard, in all his pride, felt that he stood alone, an object of uni- 
versal suspicions. . . . His overweening haughtiness broke down 
into overweening dejection. In his despair he thought seriously of 
taking refuge beyond the borders of Christendom." 

By his Breton countrymen "he was offered the dignity of abbot in 
!i monastery on the coast of Brittany. It was a bleak and desolate re- 
gion, the monks as rude and savage as the people. There, on the very 
verge of the world, on the shores of the ocean, Abelard sought in vain 
for quiet." 

The greatest of his opponents was St. Bernard (§347 and note), who 
procured the condemnation of his doctrines by the Council of Sens, 
and afterward by the I'(»i)e. 

"Absent, unheard, unconvicted, Abelard was condemned by the su- 
preme Pontiff. The decree of Innocent condemned all public disputa- 
tions on the mysteries of religion. Abelard was condemned to silence, 
his disciples to excommunication. 

"Still, for the last two years of his life, he found peace, honor, se- 
clusion, in the abbe.v of Clugny. He died at the age of sixty-three." — 
Abridged froin Milman's Latin ChriMianUy. 

3. Albert the Great (A. D. 1200-1280) had no superior among the 
"schoolmen " of the Middle Ages. He lectured three years at Paris, and 



NOTES. 251 

for mauy years at Cologne, and left many writings on logic, tlieology, 
philosophy, and physical science. He was a native of Bavaria, and be- 
longed to the Dominican Order. 

4. Thomas Aquinas (A. D. 122r>-1274), a pupil of Albert the Great, was 
of a noble family in tlie kingdom of Naples, having been a grand- 
nephew of the Emperor Frederi(; 1. His fame as a teacher has never 
been surpassed; he was called tlie Angelic Doctor, and crowds of at- 
tentive hearers gathered about liim at Paris and at Rome. The most 
important of his many works is his Smn of Theology. 

5. Roger Bacon (A. D. 1214-1292 , called TTie Admirable Doctor, and the 
greatest philosopher of tlic tliirteenth century, was an Englisliman, 
having been born in Somi isttshire and educated at Oxford and I'aris. 
He was thorouglily acquainted with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, nutapliys- 
ics, and theology, but was especially remarkable among the learned 
schoolmen for his fondness for and acquirements in physical science. 
His skill in mechanics was indeed .so great as to draw upon him the 
suspicion of deulini; in magical arts, and he was sentenced by a Council 
of his own Franciscan Order to an imprisonment which lasted ten 
years. His Oj jus- Ma jus treats of nearly all the sciences as then known. 

6. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence, A. D. 1265, and was liber- 
ally educated at the universities of Padua, Bologna, and Paris. Critics 
call him the most original of all writers and tlie greatest poet that ap- 
peared between the age of Augustus (ii242) and that of Elizabeth (g.'tll). 
He may almost be said to have created the language in which he wrote, 
which, though spoken in common intercourse, had never been made a 
medium of literature. His genius was early stimluated bj' his love for 
Beatrice Portinari, which, after her early death, inspired the greatest 
of his poems. 

The family of Dante were Guelfs, and he at one time held high 
office in Florence, where that party was supreme. But the Guelfs 
themselves were divided into the Whites and the Blacks; and Dante, 
belonging to the defeated Whites, was condemned in 1302 to exile and 
confiscation of his nroperty. The rest of his life was spent in exile; 
and, though a welcome and honored guest at the courts of several princes, 
he never ceased to long for his beloved city. 

He became a Ghibelline by principle, and, in his Latin treatise De 
Monarchid, set forth the loftiest ideal of the empire, as a divine institu- 
tion for the maintenance of justice in the world. His greatest work— 
the one mentioned in the text— is the Divina Commedia. It is called a 
comedy, neither in the classical nor the modern sense; for it is the 
most somber of poems; but, because it is written in the language of the 
common people. There is an admirable English translation by Profes- 
sor H. W. Longfellow, with notes, which contain a treasure of informa- 
tion concerning mediaeval literature and life. 

7. The fiither of Petrarch was, with Dante, an exile from Florence, 
and his son was born, A. D. 1.S04, at Arezzo, in Tuscany. The family 
afterwards removed to Avignon, the seat of the papal court. Francis 
Petrarch studied law at Montpcllier and Bologna; but the chief delight 
of his life, then and afterwards, was the reading of Latin authors, some 
of whose long-lost manuscritits he discovered in tlie dust and rubbish 
of old monasteries. In this way he rescued two lo.st orations of Cicero 
at Liege, and the same author's "Familiar Letters" at Verona. He 
spent much time in copying and arranging fragments of ancient writ- 
ings, often making complete what had existed only in scattered pieces; 
and thus contributed more than any other man of his age to the Revi- 
val of Learning. He was, moreover, one of the three founders of Italian 
literature, which attained perfection in his three hundred sonnets and 
fifty canzoni addressed to Laura de Sade. This lady was distinguished 
not more by her rank, wealth, and beauty, than by her lofty purity 
of character, which added a reverent respect to the life-long devotion 
of Petrarch. One of his finest poems is that in which he describes her 
death in 1848. Petrarch received the laurel-crown of poetry in the capital 
at Rome in 1341, by the award of the senate. For a time he was an ad- 
herent of Rienzi (g 367), and shared his dream of a new Roman Repub- 
lic. 



252 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

He was Archdeacon of Parma, and canon of several cathedrals, but 
declined the higher dignities that were offered him, for fear of losing 
his independence and leisure for literary work. He had great influence 
with the princes of his time, who employed him in important embas- 
sies. His favorite residence was the beautiful Vaucluse, a romantic glen 
in tlie mountains near Avignon. He died A. D. 1374, at Arqua, his later 
home among the Euganean Hills. 

8. Boccaccio was born in Paris, A. D. 1313, though the son of a Flor- 
entine merchant. He was forty years of age when he wrote, at the re- 
(luest of Q,ueen Joanna of Naples (§408 and note), his Decamerone or 
Hundred Tales, on wliich his fame principally rests. In later life he 
lectured on Dante, and wrote a commentary on the Liferno. Like his 
friend Petrarch he did good service in the Revival of Learning by col- 
lecting and copying manuscripts, many of which he found during his 
missions to various foreign courts. He died a year after Petrarch. 

9. Sir John Mandeville, sometime called the English Herodotus, was 
born at St, Albans about 1300. After practicing medicine for a time, 
he set out for Palestine, where he entered the service of the sultan of 
Egypt. He traveled extensively through various countries of Asia, and 
reached Pekin, where he spent three years. The narrative which he 
wrote of his wonderful adventures, is always amusing and .sometimes 
true; but lie borrowed many extravagant stories from the romances of 
the Middle Ages. Tlie chief value of his work is in its being the flrst 
extended example of English prose. 

10. Geoffrey Chaucer was born at London, A. D. 1328, and became 
a favorite of King Edward III. and his court. In 1373 he went to Genoa 
on a mission from the king, and met tlie then nged poet, Petrarch, whose 
Intlucnc' apiicus in some of his poems. Chaucer's chief work is the 
"Cniiti rhm\- Tales," the plot of which is said to have been suggested 
by tiK' l>i;uniii'nine. Tlie several stories are told by pilgrims .iourneying 
t<") the shrine of Thomas a Becket (§382), who represent all varieties of 
character, from sailor to baron, and from parson to plowman. The 
language differs much from the English of our day, but its difficulties 
are soon conquered, and there is an inexhaustible charm in the liveli- 
ness of the descriptions and the rich and varied humor of the narra- 
tive. 

11. John Wicliffe (§381) was born about 132-1, and was educated at 
Oxford, where, in IStil, he became master of Baliol College. Though 
often called in question by high tribunals for his denunciation of the 
corruptions of the times, he had a powerful protector in John of Gaunt, 
and in later years in Q,ueen Anne, wife of Richard II. The citizens of 
London also sympathized with him, and rallied in his defense. He was 
exi)clled at last from his chair at Oxford, and, retiring to his parish of 
Lutterworth, devoted his last three years to his translation of the Bible, 
and to the writing of tracts for the religious instruction of the com- 
mon people. He died December, 1384. 

12. Lorenzo was a zealous collector of ancient manuscripts, gems, 
and statuary, which he liberally placed at the service of students, and 
in every way promoted and encouraged their use. His library, still ex- 
isting la Florence, contains many rare treasures. During Lorenzo's 
life-time, Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, kept a secretary- for 
many years in this library employed in copying rare manu>cii|)ts; so 
that "the Florentine citizen's liberal tastes benefited distant lands. The 
" New Academy " founded by Lorenzo, was an association of learned 
men, whose influence, so far as it extended, recommended the philoso- 
phy of Plato as a substitute for that of Aristotle, which had hitherto 
been supreme. The new school of Italian sculpture, of which Michael 
Angelo was the greatest reiiresentativc, owed its origin to his patron- 
age, and the pre-eminence of Florence, in the history of Art, dates from 
his time. 




CHAPTER XIII. 



DAWN OF THE MODERN ERA. 



HE two centuries following the 
Crusades were full of changes. 
A rich commercial class sprang 
up, whose travels and enterprises 
drew the north and the south, 
the east and the west, into closer 
acquaintance. Three arts, bor- 
rowed from the remote east, oc- 
casioned immense revolutions in 
F.urope. The first was the manu- 
facture of gunpowder, which put 
an end to feudal power and the 
supremacy of armed knights. 
Hitherto, the castle on the cliff, 
as long as food and water held 
out, could withstand, all attacks 
of common citizens, while a single 
Costumes of XV. Century, horscman, encascd in steel, could 

put to flight a hundred unarmed peasants. Gunpowder 

went far to equalize ranks. 

431. The inventions of paper and printing did still more 
to equalize knowledge. So long as the only books were 
copied with the pen on costly parchment, learning was for 
those who could devote life or fortune to its pursuit. 
Paper was made from cotton, at Samarcand, as early as 
the seventh century; but cotton was then rare and costly 
in Europe, and it was six hundred years later that linen 
rags were found to answer the same purpose. Printing 
from solid blocks had long been practiced in China; but, 

(253) 



2 54 MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 

in 1438 A. D., a Dutch mechanic, named Kos'ter, in- 
vented movable types of wood; and, six years later, John 
Gutenberg, of Mentz, cut similar types from metal, with 
which he printed the first edition of the Bible. The new 
art was eagerly adopted in England, France, Italy, and 
Spain, and books were soon within the reach of the 
common people. 

432. During the fifteenth century most of the great 
duchies and counties became absorbed into centralized 
monarchies. The seventeen provinces which were called 
collectively the '" Low Countries,'' or Netherlands, were 
united under the dukes of Burgundy. The marriage of 
Charles VIII. (§ 414) with the Duchess Anne of Brittany, 
annexed the last of the great fiefs to the crown of France. 
The Wars of the Roses (§§ 396-399) had destroyed feud- 
alism in England. Many noble families had become ex- 
tinct, and their lands were bought, in some instances, by 
merchants — marking a great rise of the industrious classes 
into honor and dignity. 

433. The kingdom of Naples was reunited with that of 
Sicily and Aragon (^366) under Alfonso V. His suc- 
cessor added the crown of Navarre to those of his other 
dominions ; and all Spain soon afterwards became consoli- 
dated by the marriage of Fer'dinand' of Aragon with Isa- 
bel'la of Castile and Leon, and by their joint conquest of 
the Moors in the south. These brave and brilliant people 
had maintained a Mohammedan empire in Spain for nearly 
eight hundred years, and in arts and learning they far 
surpassed their conquerors. Their cities were adorned with 
the most beautiful buildings in Europe, but their power 
had long been declining. In 1492, their capital, Granada, 
was taken by Ferdinand and Isabella, and the great penin- 
sula was again under Christian rule. 

434. The greatness and goodness of Isabella were sul- 
lied by cruel bigotr}'. The Spanish Intpn'sition, a secret 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 



255 



court for the punishment of heretics and dissenters, was 
established early in her reign. On the suspicion of heresy, 
any man miglit be bruught before the black-hooded intpiis- 
itors, who sat in a dark chamber underground. He had 
no opjjortunity for defense ; he did not see the faces of 
his judges, nor know the special acts of which he was 
accused; and rarely, if ever, did he again see the light of 
day. Another cruel act was the exile of the Jews, who 
had hitherto been better treated in Spain than in any other 
country of Europe, and were the most enlightened and 
useful of her suljjects. Thousands died from the hardships 
of the voyages ; those who sur\i\ed, enriched other lands 
by their skill and industr\-, and the fatal decline of Spain 
began at the ]>roudest moment of her triumph. 

■435. Age of Discoveries. — The greatest glor}- of 

Isabella is connected with the disco\ery of America. The 

Portuguese^ had been first to explore the Atlantic to the 

southward, and find a sea-route to India by 

; passing the Cape of Good Hope. The rich ' '•* 7 

1 Indian trafiic, as carried on by Alexandria and the Red 

I Sea, had afforded much of the wealth of Venice. It was 

I now diverted to the Atlantic, and the great Republic be- 

1 gan to decline. The Portuguese established a number of 

(important trading posts (?^574) in India, of which " Goa 

I the Golden," on the western coast, was the principal. 

436. The yet bolder enterprise of Chris'topher Colum'- 
bus, with the aid of Queen Isabella, resulted in the open- 
ing of a Aum' World to the knowledge of Eu- 
ropeans. In his first and second voyages, Co- 
lumbus^ visited what we know as the West India Islands ; 
in his third, he touched the mainland of South America, 
near the mouth of the Orinoco. 1498. One year before, 
Sebas'tian Cab'ot,'' a Venetian in the service of Henry VII. 
of England (§ 399), had explored the North American 
coast from Hudson to Chesapeake Bay. The Portuguese 



A. D. 1492. 



256 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. 

Cabral', in 1500, took possession of Brazil in the name of 
his king. 

437. The great Columbus died in poverty in the country 
which he had enriched by his discoveries. His son, as 
viceroy of the New World, conquered and colonized Cuba. 
Other Spaniards followed, moved by the same romantic 
spirit of adventure that had been nourished by the wars 
against the Moors. Vas'co Nu'nez de Balbo'a,^ in 15 13, 
ascended the mountains of the Isthmus, and, first of 
Europeans, looked westward over the waters of the Pacific. 
Magel'lan, in 1520, passed the southern-most point of the 
American continent, crossed the Pacific, and discovered 
the islands afterwards called Philippine, from Philip II. of 
Spain. He was killed on one of these islands, but his 
squadron completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. 

438. Most of the natives of the New World were sav- 
ages, living by hunting and fishing, or upon the spontane- 
ous products of the soil. They were inclined to be 
friendly, and, in their awe of superior power, regarded the 
white men as messengers from heaven ; but the cruelty and 
deceit of the Spaniards soon changed their minds. Two 
great empires, Mexico and Peru, had gained a high degree 
of civilization. Their cities were guarded by a well-ordered 
police ; their magnificent temples were adorned with ex- 
quisite carvings in stone and wood, and their markets were 
filled with delicate and costly merchandise. P>y the pos- 
session of fire-arms and horses, two Spanish adventurers, 

Cor'tez in Mexico and Pizar'ro in Peru, were 
'^'^ '" able to conquer these two empires with mere 
handfuls of European troops. To satisfy the Spanish thirst 
for gold, the natives were driven to work the mines, and 
it is said that, in Peru, four-fifths of the laborers perished 
in these unaccustomed toils. The good priest Las Cas'as'' 
made every effort to relieve their sufferings. When a brill- 
iant young student of the University of Salamanca, he had 



SPANISH EXPLORERS. 257 

accompanied the second expedition of Columbus ; and his 
heart was so touched by the helplessness and heathenism 
of the natives, that he renounced all ambition and chose a 
life of poverty, in order to elevate and help them. His 
fifty years of devoted effort were not in vain, though few 
of his countrymen shared his humane spirit. Among other 
plans, he procured the introduction of Africans, who seemed 
better able to endure the hardships of the mines and the 
plantations; but he lived to pronounce the scheme a failure, 
for it enslaved one race without rescuing the other. 

439. Other Spaniards explored the western coasts of 
North America, and laid the humble founda- 
tion of our modern California. Fer'dinand 
de So'to, from the eastward, penetrated to the Mississippi, 
in 1539, and explored the basin of the Arkansas; but he 
died in the wilderness, leaving no monument of his discov- 
eries. The French were, very early, attracted to the fish- 
eries of Newfoundland, but they were among the last to 
make settlements in the New World. 

The unveiling of this great continent, wath its wonderful 
products and its immeasurable wealth, had a great effect 
in arousing the mind of Europe to new enterprise, and 
was among the chief causes that led to the Modern Era. 

Point out the several Christian and Moorish kingdoms in Spain. 
The different commercial routes between Europe and Asia. Trace 
the voyages of Columbus, Cabot, Balboa, Magellan. Point out 
Mexico and Peru. 

Read Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella, Conquest of 
Mexico, and Conquest of Peru ; Irving's Life of Columbus; and Ma- 
jor's Life of Prince Henry the Navigator. 

NOTES. 

1. Ferdinand, surnamed the Catholic, was, perhaps, the ablest and 
most successful monarch of his age. His own kingdom, since the ac- 
quisition of Catalonia in the twelfth century, had been the third mari- 
time power in the world; his marriage with Isabella united all the 
Christian kingdoms in Spain under one rule; and their joint efforts 
soon established order and peace in place of the turbulent violence of 
the nobles. The two sovereigns sat as judges once a week to hear the 
complainis of their poorer subjects, who could not afiford the expense 
Hist.— 17. 



258 



MEDIyEFAL HISTORY. 



of ordinary lawsuits. TJiey also provided for the better education of 
the youth of tlieir realms, inviting learned men to settle in tlie coun- 
try, and founding universities. Tlie shrewd policy of Ferdinand often 
degenerated into fraud, especially in his wars with Louis XII. of France 
for the possession of southern Italy, it is said that "Spain called him 
the Wise; Italy, the Pious; France and England, the Perfidious." 

2. Tlie chief promoter of Portuguese enterprise in this direction was 
Prince Henry, called "the Navigator" (^A. D. l;^9-l-14ti0), "to whose en- 
lightened foresight and perseverance the human race is indebted for 
the maritime discovery witliin one century, of more than lialf the 
globe." He was half an Englishman; for ids mother, Pliilippa, was 
daughter of John of Gaunt, and granddaughter of King P'dward III. 
(see jiji :587-;591). At the age of 21, lie had so distinguished himself in war 
against the Moors, that the Pope, the emperor, and the kings of En- 
gland and Castile offered him the chief command in their respective 
armies. But the prince desire 1 something better tlian military glory. 
He was Granil Master of tlie Portuguese military " ( )rder of Clirist," and 
believed tliat its immense revenues could be spent in no better way 
tlian in extending the boundaries of Christendom, and in satisfying 
man's rightful craving for knowledge concerning the world tliat has 
been given him for a home. "Accordingly, in 1418-11), he took up his 
alDode on the extreme south-western jjoiut of Europe, tlie promontory 
of Sagres in Algarve, of which kingdom he was made governor in per- 
petuity, with the purjiose of devoting liimself to the study of astronomy 
and matliematics, and to the direction and encouragement of the ex- 
peditions which he proposed to send fortli. There he erected an observa- 
tory—the first in Portugal— and, at great expense, procured the services 
of Mestre Jacome, from Majorca, a man very skillful in tlie art of nav- 
igation and in the making of maps and instrunieiits, to instruct the 
Portuguese officers in those sciences." Tlie prince had gained much in- 
formation from the Moors concerning the people and natural features 
of western Africa; tlie main practical results of his enterprises were tlie 
rediscovery and colonization of Madeira, the settlement of the Azores, 
and the exploration of the western Al'ricaii coast as far as the Gambia. 
But he accomplished more than this in leading the way to bolder the- 
ories of navigation. "Until his day the pathways of the liumaii race 
had been the mountain, the river, and the plain; the strait, the lake, 
and the inland sea. It was he who first conceived the tin )ught of open- 
ing a road through the unexplored ocean— a njad replete with danger, 
but abundant with promise." 

The above facts and quotations are from the Enc.t/clopo'dia Britannica. 

3. Christoforo Colombo, or. as he afterwards I^atiuized his name, 
Columbus, was of Genoos;' birth. In cliildhood he studied geometrj', 
astronomy, and navigation at the University of Pavia, but at the age of 
fourteen he entered upon that sea-fariug" life in which he attained 
greater glory than any mariner before or since. For many years he 
sailed the Mediterranean, engaged now in commerce and then in war; 
but, in 1470, at the age ot thirty or thirty-five, he repaired to Ijishon, 
which Prince Henry (note 2) had made the .chief center of maritime 
enterprise. Here he married, and in the intervals of expeditions to the 
west coast of Africa, supported his family by making maps and charts 
for navigators. A grand scheme was alreaily taking possession of his 
mind; viz, to push boldly to the westward until he should reach, as he 
confldentl.y believed, Japan. In 1477 he sailed a hundred leagues north 
of Iceland. His first etfbrts to obtain means for his great enteri>risc 
were in vain, and he became so poor that on his way to tlie Spanish 
court, he was compelled to beg for bread at a convent. Still his lot■t^• 
resolution sustained him, and, after eiglit years' delay, Queen Isabella, 
with a spirit as noble as his own, exclaimed. " I will undertake the 
enterprise for mine own crown of Castile, and if it be needful, I will 
pawn my jewels to defray the expense." Columbus was matlc High 
Admiral and Vicero.y of all the lands he might discover; three small 
ships were placed at his disposal, and he set sail from Palos, Aug. 3, 
1492. After stopping at the Canaries to I'efit, the little squadron pushed 
westward into those unknown regions which were peoi^led with inde- 
scribable terrors for the ignorant and superstitious seamen. It is said 
that Columbus was heading for what is now the coast of Georgia, when 



NOTES. 259 



a flight of birds from tlie southward convinced him tliat he should find 
land sooner in that direction; and so it was ordered tliat the Ba- 
hamas instead of our own territory were first occupied by (Spaniards. 
Just as the discontent of tlie sailors was breaking into dangerous mu- 
tinj- the glad cry, " Land ahead ! " was heard from tlie mast, and a low, 
green island bordered with trees was soon seen. With joy and thank- 
fulness only to be measured bj' the painful burden of anxiety which 
he had borne, the great admiral knelt on the threshold of the New 
World, and named the island San Sulvador. Still, and alway.s, he be- 
lieved that he had only touched unknown parts of Asia; he identified'' 
the mines of Veragua Vitli those from which Solomon had obtained 
the gold for his temi)le, being in the same latitude,, and, according to 
his calculations, equally distant from the River Ganges. 

Irving says of Columbus, " His conduct was characterized by the 
grandeur of his views and the magnanimity of his spirit. In.stead of 
scouring the newly-found countries, like a grasping adventurer eager 
only for immediate gain, he sought to ascertain their soil and produc- 
tions, tlieir rivers and harbors; he was desirous of colonizing and cul- 
tivating them; of conciliating and civilizing the natives; of building 
cities, introducing the useful arts, subjecting every thing to the control 
of law, order, and religion, and thus of founding regular and prosper- 
ous empires." 

While Queen Isabella lived, Columbus had a friend who shared his 
high enthusiasm, and comfoi'ted him in calamities wliich she could not 
entirely prevent. Her death, in 1504, left him at the mercy of a crafty 
and ungrateful king, and his last years were full of sorrows. 

4. John Cabot, a Venetian pilot and navigator, received from Henry 
VII. a patent authorizing himself and his sons to take possession, in the 
king's name, of any "islands or regions inhabited by infidels," whicli 
they could discover at their own risk and expense. Sebastian Cabot, 
tJie most distinguished of the sons, was born at Bristol, England, in 
1177. A few years after the voyage mentioned in the text, he sailed as 
far south as the extreme point of Florida. Entering the service of the 
King of Spain, in 1512, he became a member of the Council of the In- 
dies, at Seville; but afterwards returned to England, where he died at 
great age. 

5. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish adventurer, had been told by 
the natives of Central America, of a vast ocean beyond the mountains 
and the southward. With a chosen band of hardy men, he climbed, 
first through miles of tropical forests, and then over rocky precipices, 
until he reached an airy regioiLwitliin siglit of the summit. Then, leav- 
ing his followers behind, "witTi a puli>italing heart he ascended alone 
the l)arc mountain-top. It was as if a new world were unfolded to him; 
separated from all hitherto known by this mighty barrier of mountains. 
Below him extended a vast chaos of rock and forest, and green savan- 
nas and wandering streams, while at a distance the waters of the prom- 
ised ocean glittered in the morning sun." "At this glorious prospect, 
Vasco Nunez sank upon liis knees and poui-ed out tlianks to God." 

He marked the scene of the discovery with a cross made from a fair 
and tall tree, and with a mound of stones, inscribing, also, the names 
of the Spanish sovereigns on the trees. Afterwards, descending to the 
sea, he marched into the water witli drawn sword and waving banner, 
and proclaimed that he had taken "actual possession of these seas and 
lands and coasts and poi'ts and islands, and was prepared to maintain 
and defend them in the name of the Castiliau sovereigns." 

6. Irving states (Columbus and his Companions, Appendix XXVIII.) 
that it was the father of Las Casas who accomiianied Columbus on his 
second voyage, and that the young priest first visited the New ^Vorld 
in company with Ovando, in 1502. In any case he devoted a long life to 
the .service of the oppressed. "As a missionary, he traversed the wil- 
derness of the New World in various directions, seeking to convert and 
civilize them; as a protector and champion, he made several voyages 
to Spain, vindicated their wrongs before courts and monarchs, wrote 
volumes in their behalf, and exhibited a zeal and constancy and in- 
trepidity worthy of an apostle. He died at the advanced age of ninety- 
two years." 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. — BOOK II. 



Section 

1. What are the divisions of Median'al History? 284 

2. What had the northern liarbarians to do with the 

changes which introduced the Dark Ages? 283, 285 

3. What was the power of the Church in the Dark Ages? 285 

4. Where were tlie various tribes, A. D. 500? 286-288 

5. What nations successively governed Italy ? 288, 289 

6. What non-German races in Europe ? 290 

7. What was the extent of the Eastern Empire? 291 

8. Describe the reign of Justinian; of Ileraclius; of 

Leo III. 292 -294 

9. The Macedonian Dynasty. 295 

10. Tell the story of Mohammed. 296-298 

11. Of his successors. 299 

12. Describe their invasions of Spain and France; their 

purpose and results. 300-302 

13. The three Moslem empires, and their progress in 

civilization. 303, 304 

14. What was done by Saracen pirates? 305 

15. Describe the rise of tlie C'arlovingians. 301, 306—308 

16. The reign and character of Charlemagne. 308-313 

17. What became of his dominions after his death? 314, 315 

18. What is meant by the Feudal System? 316-319 

19. What occasioned the rise of the Saxon Line of 

emperors ? 320 

20. By whom, and for how long, were the Roman 

emperors chosen? 321 

21. Describe the last of the Saxon, and the greatest of 

the Franconian emperors. 

22. Tell the story of Henry IV. and Hildebrand. 

23. Describe the Northmen and their conquests in the 

East. 

24. Their piracies and settlements in the West. 

25. The rise of their Italian kingdom. 

(260) 



322, 


323 


324. 


325 


326, 


327 


328, 


329 




iZ^ 



QUESTIONS.— BOOK II. 261 

Section 

26. Their conquest of England. 332, Ty^T) 

27. The sons and nephew of William the Conqueror. 334, 335 

28. Who defended France against the Northmen ? 336, 337 

29. Describe France under the first two Capets. 338, 339 

30. The First Crusade, its causes and results. 340-346 

31. Who had part in the Second Crusade? 347 

32. Describe Saladin and the Third Crusade. 348, 349 

33. What was done in the Fourth Crusade? 351 

34. By the Emperor Frederic II. in the Fifth? 352 

35. What occasioned an alliance of Christians and 

Saracens ? 353 

36. Describe the Crusades of Louis IX. of France. 354, 355 

37. What became of Acre ? 356 

38. What were the consequences of the Crusades? 357 ~ 359 

39. What became of the three military Orders? 360, 361 

40. WHiat relations existed between emperors and popes? 362 

41. Who were Guelfs and Ghibellines? 363 

42. Describe the wars of Frederic I. in Italy. 364 

43. The character and reign of Frederic II. 365 

44. Of the first of the Hapsburgs. 365 

45. Tell the story of Charles of Anjou in Italy, 366 

46. Of Rienzi. 367 

47. What can you tell of Italian cities and merchants? 368-370 

48. Of the German cities and people? 371, 372 

49. Describe the rise of the middle class, 373 

50. The character of the Turks. 303, 374 

51. Tell the story of Genghis Khan. 375 

52. Describe the Mongol dominion. 376 

53. The career of Tamerlane. 377 

54. The rise of the Ottoman Empire. 378-380 

55. The character and reign of Henry IL of England. 381, 382 

56. Of his two sons. 383 

57. What great event marks the reign of Henry III. ? 384 

58. Describe the first two Edwards in England. 385, 386 

59. The wars of Edward III. 387, 389- 406 

60. The reign of Richard II. 390 

61. Name the three Lancastrian kings. 392 — 39^ 

62. Describe the wars of the Lancastrians in France. 393, 394 

63. Who was the King-maker, and why so called? 397 

64. Name the three Yorkist kings. 397-399 

65. What is meant by the Wars of the Roses ? 396 



562 MEDI.'EVAL HISTORY. 



66. Describe their end and their consequences. 

67. What events mark the reigns of Louis VI. and VII. 

in France ? 

68. Describe the crusade against the Albigenses. 

69. The character and reign of Louis IX. 

70. Of Philip IV. 

71. Wliat three tings ended the elder line of Capet? 

72. DeNcribe the first two Valois kings. 

73. The condition of France under Charles VI. 

74. What changes occurred under Cliarles VII. ? 

75. Describe the character and reign of Louis XI. 

76. The condition of Germany in the 14th and 15th 

centuries. 

77. Who were the seven electors? 

78. What sons of Charles IV. wore the imperial crown? 

79. Describe the Council of Constance, its acts and their 

consequences. 418 -421 

80. Wliat was done ])y the councils of Basle and Ferrara ? 42L, 422 

81. What can you tell of the Hapsburgs? 

82. Name some great teachers in the Middle Ages. 

83. Name and describe the oldest universities. 

84. What changes occurred in European languages? 

85. What led to the revival of Learning? 

86. What important inventions toward the end of the 

Middle Ages? 

87. How were several western nations consolidated? 

88. Descrijje the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. 

89. The Portuguese voyages of disco\ery. 

90. Tell the story of Columbus. 

91. Describe the New World and its inhabitants. 

92. Name other discoverers and their enterprises. 



Section 




399 




400 


401, 


402 




403 




404 




405 


406, 


407 


408, 


409 




410 


411 


-414 




415 




416 


417. 


418 



423, 


424 




425 




426 


427, 


428 




429 


430. 


431 


432, 


433 


434, 


435 




435 


436, 


437 




438 


436 


-439 



BOOK III.— MODERN HISTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE FRENCH IN ITALY. 




W French Troops Entering an Italian City. 

K have seen that the invention of gunpowder 
(§430) destroyed the mihtary supremacy of knights and 
nobles, but at first it seemed hkely to aggrandize the 
kings more than it elevated the people. Instead of the 
feudal levies, which served, at most, only forty days at a 
term, and were always crumbling away when most needed, 
a king could now have a regular standing army at his 
command; and long foreign wars became possible. 

441. The first of these modern expeditions was the 
madcap invasion of Italy by Charles VIII.' of 
France (§414). The pretext was in the claim 
of his house to the crown of Naples (§408), but an imme- 

(263 )> 



A. D. 1494. 



264 MODERN HISTORY. 



diate reason was that Lu'dovi'co Sfor'za^ wanted to poison 
his nephew, the duke of Milan, and thought that the pres- 
ence of a French king as h's ally might prevent the pun- 
ishment of his crime. 

442. Alexander VI. ^ occupied the throne of St. Peter 
from A. D. 1492 to 1503, and, during his pontificate, all 
Italy was filled with corruption and violence. At Flor- 
ence the eloquent sermons of Savon'aro'la,'' a Dominican 
monk, effected a partial reformation of morals. He de- 
clared that the French were ministers of divine wrath 
against the wickedness of the times ; and welcomed their 
king to Florence ; but, when Charles proposed to tax the 
city and recall the Medici (§ 370) who had just been ex- 
pelled, the Florentines flew to arms, and he was forced 
to retire. 

443. Charles passed through Rome to Naples. The 
Aragonese king (§ 366) abdicated, his son was expelled 
from the capital, and the whole kingdom was gained by 
the French almost without a blow. But Charles' foolish 
vanity and arrogance roused the indignation of the Neapol- 
itans; and by this time all Italy had recovered from its 
first shock of alarm, and had united in a league against 
him. He quitted Naples for the north, and the kingdom 
was lost as speedily as it had been won. 

444. This foolish war kindled a thirst for conquest in 
the kings of France, for which Italy suffered long. At 
the same time it led to better acquaintance among the na- 
tions, which resulted in some important alliances. Philij),' 
heir of the Netherlands, married Joan'na,^ daughter of Fer- 
dinand and Isabella of Spain ; while her younger sister, 
Cath'erine, became the wife of Arthur of England, and, 
upon his death, of his brother Henry, the heir of the 
English crown. These two marriages may be said to have 
shaped the history of the sixteenth century. Charles," son 
of Philip and Joanna, inherited Spain and the Indies, 



WARS IN ITALY. 265 



southern Italy and the Netherlands, and was elected to 
the imperial crown, A. I). 15 19, which made him the 
foremost figure in that eventful age. 

445. Charles VIII. of France left no son, and, upon 
his early death, the crown went to his cousin 

Louis, duke of Orleans. To the royal claim 
upon Naples, Louis XII. added a title of his own to the 
duchy of Milan, and soon sent an army to enforce it. 
All Lombardy was annexed without a blow, and the king- 
dom of Naples was almost as easily reconquered. But 
Ferdinand of Aragon — the craftiest monarch of his age — 
though an ally of Louis, gained possession of the Neapol- 
itan fortresses by trickery, and drove out all the French. 
And, though Louis doomed thousands of brave men to die 
of pestilence in the marshes of southern Italy, he never 
succeeded either in regaining the kingdom or in punishing 
the fraud. 

446. The League of Cambray united the emperor, the 
pope, and the kings of France and Spain against the 
Venetian Republic. It was the first close alliance of 
ereat European powers since the crusades; and, 

° . -r n 1 1 1 • • A. D. 1508. 

oddly enough, its manifesto declared their main 
object to be a war against the "Infidel," after having first 
put an end to the ambition and greed of Venice. This 
republic was, in fact, the only effective opponent of the 
Turks, and had just ended a war which deprived them of 
important dominions in the Levant. 

447. The war of the League was carried on with fright- 
ful brutality. In one instance 6,000 men, women, and 
children were smothered in a cave near Padua, the French 
soldiers having deliberately kindled a fire at its , entrance. 
The pope, Ju'lius II., suddenly turned the balance by quit- 
ting his allies and forming a "Holy League," 

with Spain and Venice, against the French. 

Untamed by old age or his peaceful profession, he con- 



2 66 MODERN HISTORY. 



stantly appeared on horseback at the head of his troops, 
enduring all the hardships of a severe winter. Gaston de 
Foix, the French commander, was called the " Thunder- 
bolt of Italy" on account of his swift, decisive movements. 
He gained many victories, but he was killed in the great 
battle of Ravenna, A. D. 15 12, and a few weeks later 
only three towns and three fortresses remained to the 
French of all their conquests in Italy. 

448. The warlike Pope Julius was succeeded, in 15 13, 
by the Cardinal de' Medici, who took the name of Leo X. 
He resembled his father, Lorenzo (§370) in the perfec- 
tion of his tastes in art and literature, and in his liberal 
and courteous manners. But he was a pagan in faith and 
a libertine in morals; and he used his great power chiefly 
to enrich his family, who were again supreme in Florence. 
Louis XII. died in 1515, and his rival, Ferdinand, in 
1 5 16. Ferdinand was the most successful monarch of his 
age, but his character is stained by falsehood, ingratitude, 
and base injustice.* (see note, p. 257). 

449. Francis I. (A. D. 1^15-1547), succeeding his 
cousin as king of France, lost no time in renewing the 
war in Italy. His generals conducted an army of 64,000 
men across the Alps by paths trodden hitherto only by 
mountain goats, and surprised the enemy by a sudden 
appearance upon the Lombard plain. The battle of Ma- 
rignano regained the Milanese duchy for Francis. 

450. The emperor Maximilian died in 15 19, and the 
seven electors bestowed the crown upon Charles of Spain. 
In his envy and disappointment, Francis sought the alli- 
ance of Henry VIII. of England against the new eniperor, 

and had with him, near Calais, a famous inter- 
view, known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 
from the brilliant display of trappings on either side. But 
the emjjeror was, at the same time, courting the friendship 
of Henry and his great minister Wolsey, promising his 



FRANCIS I. A PRISONER. 267 



influence to make the latter pope at the next vacancy. 
Henry tried to make peace between his two great allies; 
but the causes of enmity were too deeply seated, and the 
contests for Burgundy, Milan, and Naples broadened into 
an almost continuous war of two hundred years between 
France and the House of Austria. 

451. In 1 52 1, Francis lost the duchy of Milan, and 
Pope Leo X. is said to have died of joy at the news. 
He was succeeded, in the papal chair, by Adrian, tutor of 
Charles V. — an honest man, who purified the Roman 
court during the few months of his reign. Francis was 
just ready for a new invasion of Italy, when he was de- 
serted by his kinsman and most powerful subject, the 
Duke of Bourbon. Having been injured and bitterly in- 
sulted by the king's mother, Bourbon went over to the 
emperor, and agreed with him and the English king, 
upon a triple partition of France. Henry VIII. actually 
advanced within thirty-three miles of Paris; but his allies 
failed to support him, and France was not divided. 

452. In 1524, Francis marched into Italy with every 
prospect of victory. He was defeated, however, in a great 
battle before Pavia, and was made a prisoner. For a year 
he was held a captive in Spain, and finally released only 
upon his promise to restore Burgundy (§413) to Charles. 
As soon as he was free, Francis broke his royal word, and 
hostilities were renewed. He gained little, although Pavia 
was taken and given up to pillage in revenge for his disaster 
before its walls. A truce was agreed upon in the treaty of 
Cambray — known as the Ladies' Peace, because it was ne- 
gotiated by the emperor's aunt and the king's mother, A. 
D. 1529. 

Trace the march of Charles VIII. through Italy. Point out 
Ravenna. Padua. Pavia. Milan. Venice. The dominions of 
Charles V., §444. 

Read Villari's Life of Savonarola; Ranke's History of the Popes; 
Dyer's History of Modern Europe, Vol. I. 



268 MODERN HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. Charles VIII., son of Louis XI., and Charlotte of Savoy, became 
king by liis father's death, in 1483; but, as he was only in his'l4th year, 
the regency had been committed to his elder sister, Anne of Beaujeu. 
Either from jealousy or simple inditlVniicc, Louis had paid no attention 
to his son's education; and, to the power and duties of a king, Charles 
could only bring an untrained and ignorant mind. No wonder that 
his judgincnt was constantly at fault, and that his impulses, though 
soniVtinies gciieious and kindly, led him into ruinous undertakings. 
The festivities with which he celebrated his departure for Italy, used 
up the entire sum which was to have •lefrayrtl the expense of the 
war, and he could only proceed by bonowing and jiawning the jew- 
els of his kinswomen, the Duchess of Savoy and the ^Marchioness of 
Montferrat. The wealiness and corruption of Italy, rather than his 
own power, led to his rapid conquests, and he had no ability to keep 
what he had so easily won. 

Charles married Anne, Duchess of Bretagne; their three little children 
died before an accident put an end to his own life in 1498. 

2. Ludovico Sforza, or Louis the Moor — so called from his swarthy 
complexion— was one of those adventurers, not uncommon in his day, 
who gained wealth and power by practicing upon the weaknesses of sov- 
ereigns. His brother, the Duke of Milan, was murdered in 1476, leaving 
a little son eight years old. The widowed Duchess was recognized as 
Regent; but Ludovico wrested the power from her hands, imprisoned 
his nephew, and, when the Kingof Naples interfered, invit<'<l the French 
king to invade Italy and make good his title to the southern kingdom. 
Ludovico was successful for a time, but, in 1499, w;is captured by Louis 
XL, and spent the last 11 j'ears of his life as a prisoner in France. 

3. Alexander VI. was a Spaniard whose secular name was Rodrigo 
Borgia. He first distinguished himself as a lawyer, afterwards in mili- 
tary service; but, upon his uncle's elevation to the papal throne, he 
entered the Church and was made a cardinal .at the early age of 26. He 
became Po|>e in 1492, the same year that Columbus discovered America, 
anil it was l)y his edict tliat the newly found continents and islands 
were divided between the Spaniards and the Portuguese. 

4. Savonarola was born at Ferrara, 1452, and became Prior of San 
Marco, in Florence, in 1491. He used his great power in advocacy at 
once of republican freedom and of Christian morality. Lorenzo de' 
Medici, who greatly admired him, made many efforts to win the elo- 
quent prior to his side; but Savonarola was firm, and even refused his 
blessing to Lorenzo when dying, except upon the condition that he 
would restore liberty to Florence. After the expulsion of the Medici, 
in 1494, the liberal party, with Savonarola at its head, gained ascend- 
ancy, and established a new constitution, based upon Christian princi- 
ples. At>juiing tlie former luxury and license of Florentine life, this 
party called its members Piagiumi, or weepers. But its extreme meas- - 
ures led to a re-action; Alexander VI. interfered, and Savonarola, re- 
sisting his authority, was "arrested, tortured, condemned, and strangled 
in May, 1498." 

5. Philip was the son of Maximilian I. and the Duchess Mary, of 
Burgundy (iJ424), and inherited from his mother the seventeen wealthy 
provin(;es known collectively as the Netherlands or Low Countries. 
They are named in ii5r2, note. 

6. In 1504, upon the death of Queen Isabella, Joanna was crowned 
Queen of Castile and Leon; but, so fee))le was lier mind, that the royal 
power was exercised, first by her husliand, afterwards by her father, 
and finally by her son. Upon Philip's death, in 150(i, slie became totally 
insane, and spent the nearly fifty years that reniaine<l of her life in a 
dismal sechision. She died in 1555, and her son abtlicated the sam^ 
year (H"0). 

Her sister Catherine, an intelligent and amiable princess, suffered 
even greater sorrows during the last years of her life (gH90-492). 



NOTES. 269 

7. The great events in the life of Charles are told in the text (§g450- 
471). He was a dull youth, sluggisli in mind and weak in body; but his 
motto, Non Dum (Not Yet), wliich he assumed at the age of 16, sliowed, 
perhaps, his consciousness of unawakened power. Ten years later, he 
took the motto, Plus Ultra (More Beyond). 

Motley ascribes his popularity, among other causes, to "a singularly 
fortunate manner. He spoke German, Spanish, Italian, French, and 
Flemish, and could assume the characteristics of each country as easily 
as he could use its language. He couhl be stately with Siiahiards, fa- 
miliar with Flemings, witty with Italians. He could strilie down a 
bull in the ring like a matador at Madrid, or win the prize in the 
tonrney like a knight of old; lie could ride at the ring with the Flem- 
ish nobles, hit the popinjay with liis cross-bow among Antwerp arti- 
sans, or drink beer and exchange rude jests with the boors of Brabant. 
For virtues such as these, his grave crimes against God and man have 
been palliated, as if oppression became more tolerable because the op- 
pressor was an accomplished linguist and a good marksman. But the 
great reason for his popularity, no doubt, lay in his military genius. 
Charles was inferior to no general of his age. He was constitutionally 
fearless, and he possessed great energy and endurance. He was ever 
the first to arm when a battle was to be fought, and the last to take 
oflT his harness. He was calm in great reverses. The restless energy and 
magnificent tranquility of his character made him a hero among princes, 
an idol with his ofhcers, a popular favorite every-where."— iJwe of the 
Dutch Reiniblic, I, 117. 

8. "The crown passed at length to Francis of Angouleme. There 
were in his nature seeds of nobleness— seeds destined to bear little fruit. 
Chivalry and honor were always on his lips; but Francis the First, a 
forsworn gentleman, a despotic king, vainglorious, sdhsh, sunk in de- 
bauclieries, was but the type of an era which retained the forms of 
the Middle Age without its soul, and added to a still prevailing barbar- 
ism the pestilential vices which hung fog-like around the dawn of 
civilization. Yet he esteemed arts and letters, and, still more, coveted 
the iclat which they could give. The light which was beginning to 
pierce the feudal darkness gathered its rays around his throne. Italy 
was rewarding the robbers who preyed on her with the treasures of 
her knowledge and her culture; and Italian genius, of whatever stamp, 
found ready patronage at the hands of Francis. Among artists, philos- 
ophers, and men of letters, enrolletl in his service, stands the humbler 
name of a Florentine navigator. John Verrazzano. 

"The wealth of the Indies was pouring into the coffers of Charles 
the Fifth, and tlie exploits of Cort^z had given new luster to his crown 
(H'W)- Francis tlie First begrudged his hated rival the glories and profits 
of the New World. He would fain have his share of the prize; and 
Verrazzano, with four ships, was dispatched to seek out a passage west- 
ward to the rich kingdom of Cathay." Sailing from Madeira, "in 49 
days they neared a low shore, not far from the site of Wilmington, in 
North Carolina. 'A newe land ! ' exclaims the voyager, ' never before seen 
of any man, either auncient or moderne' . . . Verrazzano's next rest- 
ing-place was the Bay of New York. Rowing up in his boat through 
the Narrows, under the steep heights of Staten Island, he saw the har- 
bor within dotted with canoes of the feathered natives coming from 
the shore to welcome him. . . . Following the shores of Long Island, 
they came to Block Island, and thence to the harbor of Newport. Here 
they stayed fifteen days, most courteously received by the inhabit- 
ants. . . . Again they spread their sails and . . . steered along the 
rugged coasts of New England, and surveyed, ill-pleased, the surf-beaten 
rocks, the pine-tree and the fir, the shadows and the gloom of mighty 
forests. . . . 

" Verrazzano coasted the sea-board of Maine, and sailed northward 
as far as Newfoundland, whence, provisions failing, he steered for 
France. He had not found a ])assage to Cathay, but he had explored 
the American coast from the ;;tth to the 50th [degree], and, at various 
points, had penetrated several leagues into the country. On the 8th of 
July he wrote from Dieppe to the king the earliest description known 
to exist of tlie shores of the United States."— PrtrAmcm, Pioneers of France 
in the JVew World, jip. 174-179. 



CHAPTER II. 



CHARLES V. AM) THE REFORMATION ^ THE TURKS. 

HE sej)aratioD of most of the | 
northern nations of Europe from , 
the Roman Church was the j 
greatest event of the sixteenth 
century. Its causes had been at ' 
work ever since the time of the 
Crusades. Wealth and undisputed 
power had brought abuses into the 
( liurch; and the more men learned 
to think for themselves, the less 
tliey were able to believe that such 
])opes as Alexander VI. were the 
true representatives of Christ upon 
earth. 

454. The principal leader of the 
Reformation was Martin Luther, 
a German miner's son. In his youth he was a charity 
.scholar, earning his bread by singing hymns from house 
to house. The sudden death of a friend aroused his 
religious feelings, and, (putting the study of the law, he 
became a monk. Visiting Rome, he saw evidences of the 
corruption of tlie clergy, which filled him with horror. 

455. The sale of "Indulgences" soon attracted the atten- 
tion and excited the opposition of Luther. At first money 
had been paid merely as a commutation for temporal penal- 
ties. The kings of the Middle Ages had assuaged their 
remorse for deeds of violence by erecting cosdy and mag- 
nificent churches, which are still the greatest ornaments of 
(270) 




A German Nobleman. 



MAR TIN L UTHER. 2 7 1 



central Europe. Humbler penitents contributed in their 
measure to the Church, and hoped by faith and sacrifice to 
have made their peace with Heaven. But the age of the 
Renaissance regarded matters from a more worldly point of 
view. Pope Leo X. wanted immense sums of money to 
support the artists who were beautifying Rome, and an in- 
creased sale of indulgences afforded the needed supply. 

456. Lu'ther, now a famous professor at Wittenberg, 
preached boldly against this traffic, and the good sense 
of the German people sustained him, even when he nailed 
to the church door his 95 theses/ declaring 

that remission of sins is from God alone. He 
was summoned to Rome to be tried for heresy, but his 
sovereign, the elector of Saxony,^ forbade him to go. The 
pope excommunicated him, and the emperor cited him to 
appear before the diet at Worms. Here he firmly refused 
to retract any of his teachings unless they could be refuted 
from the Bible. Many urged the emperor to imprison 
him for his boldness; but Charles respected his own word, 
which was pledged for Luther's safety, and replied, "No, 
I will not blush like Sigismund at Constance" (§419). 
The reformer was, however, declared an outlaw, together 
with all who should shelter him, or print, buy, sell, or read 
his books. Seeing his danger, the elector Frederic ordered 
him to be shut \\\) in the Wartburg, where he spent a year 
in making a German translation of the Scriptures.^ 

457. Luther was called from his retreat by news of 
disorderly movements among the people, who hoped that 
the "new religion" was going to right all their wrongs at 
once. Some of them even expected an equal distribution 
of property, and began to plunder churches, convents, ; nd 
castles. While urging the princes and nobles to do justice, 
and provide for the education of the people, Luther advised 
ihe If.tter to submit to their lawful rulers. Order was not 
restored without tlu loss of 100,000 lives. 



272 MODERN' HISTORY. 



458. While the pope himself was a prisoner in the hands 
of the eni])eror (§461), and the Turks were threatening 
all Christendom alike, Charles was compelled to favor the 
reformers, who united themselves in the league of Torgau, 
1526. Three years later, the diet at Spires decreed that 
no changes from the worship and doctrine of the old 
church should be allowed. Nine German princes and 
fifteen free cities //r^nVr^/^ against this decree; whence the 
reforming ])arty took the name of Protestants. 

459- ^y ^'""'^ time, Denmark and Sweden, as well as a 
great part of Ccrmany, had accepted the doctrines of 
Luther. A similar reformation had been going on in 
Switzerland under Zwing'li,^ who persuaded the Council of 
Zurich to declare the Scriptures to be the only standard 
of faith. In French Switzerland, Farel'^ and Cal'vin** con- 
tinued the work whith Zwingli had begun; while in France 
itself, a numerous party, including the king's sister. Queen 
Margaret of Navarre,' believed in the reformed doctrines. 

460. In the meantime, all Europe trembled at the prog- 
ress of Sol'yman the Magnificent,''the ablest of the Turkish 
monarchs. Three great fortresses of Hungary were taken 
by him in the summer of 1521; nnd, the following year, 
the island of Rhodes was surrendered, after a long and 
heroic defense by the Knights of St. John (§§346, 360, 
361). In vain Pope .\drian tried to unite the princes of 
Europe in a crusade; their mutual enmities were too strong. 
In 1523 he died, and was succeeded by Clem'ent VII., 
one of the Medici. 

461. Clement's pontificate was marked by greater losses 
and calamities than e\'er pope endured before. At its 
beginning he was besieged by Cardinal Colon'na, who plun- 
dered his palace and the church of St. Peter; the next 

year a Spanish and Cerman army took Rome 

'^"'^' by storm, and for two weeks made havoc of 

the treasures which all Europe had been pouring into it for 



SOLYMAxY THE MAG lYIFICENT. 273 

centuries in offerings of devotion. Pope Clement was im- 
prisoned half a year, and was finally released only upon 
paying an enormous ransom, and promising to convene a 
general council for the reformation of the Church. This 
promise he broke; and, before his death, England and a 
great part of northern Europe (§459) cast off their obedi- 
ence to the popes. 

462. Solyman had by this time subdued Egypt, and 
nearly conquered Persia: turning again to the westward, 
he declared himself lord of all the dominions of Constan- 
tine. The Hungarians were unable to resist him. In the 
fatal battle of Mohacz their young king was 

slain, and his army destroyed. Their capital 
was taken by the Turks, and all its treasures went to 
enrich Constantinople. Instead of uniting even now, the 
Christian princes spent their strength in a dispute over 
the vacant crowns of Hungary and Bohemia. The latter 
was conferred upon Ferdinand of Austria, the emperor's 
brother and successor in the imperial title; the former was 
contested by John Zapol'ya, the greatest of the Hungarian 
nobles, who was aided by the French king, the pope, and, 
finally, by Solyman himself. 

463. Zapolya did homage (§317) for his crown to the 
sultan, whom he acknowledged as successor of the eastern 
Cfesars; then accompanied him to Buda, and helped to 
put its Christian garrison to the sword! Vienna itself was 
besieged by the Turkish fleet and army, but was so well 
defended that Solyman was compelled to depart. 

The threatening attitude of the Turks compelled Charles- 
V. to favor the Protestants, who were now united in the 
league of Smalcald. Full liberty was granted to the 
doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, lately adopted as 
the standard of lAitheran faith. 

464. In 1533, Solyman marched into Hungary at the 
head of 350,000 men and an immense train of artillery. 

Hist.— 18. 



2 74 MODERN HISTORY. 



But he spent his forces in trifling operations, and the next 
year made peace with Charles. He still kept his " flying 
squadrons " of pirates in the Mediterranean, whose most 
formidable chief was Barbaros'sa, sultan of Algiers. Along 
the northern coasts no man slept in security, for at any 
hour the corsairs might appear and drag away as captives 
any whom they might find. Thousands of these wretched 
victims were in slavery on the African coast. 

465. In 1535, the emperor undertook, in person, the 
punishment of this freebooter. I>anding near Tunis he 
stormed its fortress, routed Barbarossa in a pitched battle, 
occupied the city, and restored its rightful sovereign, whom 
Barbarossa had expelled. He moreover set free a vast 
multitude of Christian captives, whom he clothed and sent 
home to F.urope. Francis I., though many of his own 
subjects were thus liberated, hated Charles all the more 
for his great success. He took Barbarossa into his own 
pay, and renewed hostilities with the emperor. To guard 
against invasion, he laid waste a rich and beautiful tract 
of his own dominion, on the lower Rhone. Villages were 
destroyed, crops burned, and wells poisoned. Charles 
marched to besiege Marseilles; but this horrid plan of 
defense was too successful, and he had to retreat with a 
loss of 30,000 men. 

466. Upon the death of Zapolya, Solyman seized Buda, 
the capital of Hungary, which for 150 years continued to 
be a Mohammedan city, both in religion and government. 
A second African expedition, made by Charles V. in 1542, 
resulted in failure. His fleet was destroyed by tempests, antl 
his army by famine and pestilence. The king of France, 
rejoicing in these disasters, raised five great armies to attack 
the various dominions of the emperor; but his enterprises 
ended in much loss and very little gain. His Turkish allies 
meanwhile found a ready market at Marseilles for the Chris- 
tian slaves whom they carried away from the coasts of Italy ' 



d 



THE FIRST RELIGIOUS WAR. 275 



467. Again, as in the days of Charles Martel (§§300-302), 
it seemed possible that the Mediterranean would be sur- 
rounded by a great Mohammedan empire; but the prospect 
was far more terrible than before, for the Turks were a 
brutal race compared with the refined and intellectual 
Saracens. All the Christian powers were indignant at the 
alliance of Francis I. with these pirates; and Henry VIII, 
of England again joined Cliarles V. in an 

invasion of France. He captured Boulogne, ' ' ' '''^'" 
while the emperor took several towns and fortresses, and 
advanced within two days' march of Paris. 

468. Francis was now forced to abandon his unnatural 
allies: he made peace with Charles, and promised to join 
him in the suppression of heresy. The Vaudois, a harm 
less people, who occupied the high Alpine valleys between 
France and Piedmont, were the first sufferers from this 
new alliance. They had kept the simple faith of the 
early Christian ages, and were glad to find themselves in 
substantial agreement with the Reformers. 'J'he armies of 
Francis now pursued them like wild beasts among their 
mountains, hurhng mothers with their children from the 
cliffs, and dragging off men to be chained in the royal 
galleys. In many towns of France and the Netherlands 
persons were burned to death for heresy. 

469. In December, 1545, the Council of Trent was 
opened (§461). But, without waiting for its decisions, 
the emperor collected a great army, and made war on the 
Protestant princes. By a mixture of violence and fraud, 
he captured the elector of Saxony, and the landgrave 
of Hesse, and bestowed the dominions of the former on 
Duke Maurice of Saxony, whose descendants still retain 
them. The duke was a cousin of the rightful elector, who, 
while leading the Protestant armies, trusted him to govern 
and defend his dominions. His betrayal of the trust was 
almost a death blow to the Protestants. But Maurice, 



276 MODERN HISTORY. 

having gained all he wanted, turned against the emperor, 
and nearly made him prisoner by a sudden movement. 
The bishops in council at Trent made a hasty retreat, and 
only met again after ten years' vacation. This first religious 
war in Germany was ended by the peace of Passau, 1552. 
The Smalcaldic League was dissolved, and its forces went to 
fight the Turks, who were overrunning all southern Hungary, 
and ravaging the Mediterranean coasts and islands. 

470. In 1555, the sick and weary emperor resolved to 
throw off the burden of public care, and snatch a little 
repose before his death. His two rivals were already 
dead. He invested his son Philip with the lordship 
of all the Netherlands and the crown of Spain, while 
he recommended his brother Ferdinand (§462) to the 
electors for the imperial crown. He then took up his 
residence in a convent, at Yuste, in southern Spain, where 
he amused himself with gardening, watch-making, and 
music; though he still kept a keen eye on public affairs, 
and aided his children by his advice. Two years after 
his retirement, he was seized with a strange desire to . 
celebrate his own funeral. Clotlied as a monk, he joined 
the chant of the brotherhood about his empty coffin, but 
within a month this solemn farce was turned into reality. 
He died on the 21st of September, 1558. 

471. The reign of Charles V. was one of the most 
eventful periods in history. Conquest and colonization in 
America, and struggles of religious principles in Europe, 
had made the world on which he closed his eyes, in 1558, 
a different one from that on which they had opened with 
the century. The Reformation had at one time affected 
Italy and Spain, Austria and Hungary, no less than north- 
ern Germany and England; but it was now checked in all 
the dominions of the Spanish-Austrian family. 

472. The new society of Jesuits had much to do with 
this counter-reformation. Their founder was Ignatius Loy- 



THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 277 

o'la, a Spanish cavalier, who in his youth had been severely 
wounded in battle. While slowly recovering, his mind, 
full of remorse for past sins, plunged eagerly into schemes 
for atonement by extending the Christian faith into regions 
of heathendom. So, while Luther was shaking the dominion 
of the church by his preaching, Loyola was preparing a 
movement which reestablished and extended its power. 
The Jesuits differed from most -of the other religious 
orders by their liberal studies, which developed all their 
talents, and made them the ablest of teachers. The 
influence which they gained over the princes and leading 
minds of Catholic Europe, may be read in the history of 
the next three centuries. The General of the order, 
residing at Rome, was made acquainted with each mem- 
ber's character and talents; and while he made use of the 
commanding intellect of some to manage kings and em- 
perors, he could employ the humble piety of others in 
missions to the savages of America, and the crowded cities 
of China and Japan. 

Point out the dominions of Charles V. on Map 9. ??444, 451. 
The conquests of Solyman. Trace the expeditions of Charles V. 
Point out the country of the Vaudois. Spires, Worms, Augsburg, 
Trent. 

Read Ranke's History of the Popes, and History of Germany 
during the Reformation ; Robertson's Life of Charles the Fifth, 
edited by Prescott ; Coxe's House of Austria. 

NOTES. 

1. Frederic the "Wise was among the greatest German princes of his 
day. On the death of Maximilian, in 1519, the Saxou Elector became 
regent of tlie Empire, and was even offered tlie imperial crown; but, 
feeling tliat he liad not the means to act with the energy which the 
times demanded, he steadily refused it, and gave his vote to Charles 
of Austria. Under this obligation to the wise Elector, Charles could 
not immediately use extreme measures against Luther, who was a fa- 
vorite professor in the new university of Wittenberg, founded by Fred- 
eric, in 1502. It is said that Charles, in later years, ntiretted that he had 
not put an end to Luther's teachings by condemning liim to the stake; 
but now he quieted the fears of the people by re-affirming his safe con- 
duct, remarking that "if truth, and faith abode nowhere else, they ought 
ever to find a refuge in the courts of princes." 



278 



MODERN HISTORY. 



2. Luther's version of the Scriptures first gave literary forms and 
permanence to tlie German language. It was closely modeled upon the 
speecli of the common people; "How does the mother say it?" was the 
question which he continually asked of his friends, whose notes, taken 
in the cottages of the poor, gave him valuable aid in his great under- 
taking. 

The New Testament appeared in 1522, shortly after his friendly de- 
tention in the Wartburg; the Old Testament, in 1.534. 

Luther was highly esteemed by many great German princes, who 
relied upon his counsel in matters afTecting their dominions. He died 
in 1546, the year after the opening of the Council of Trent, in the 63d 
year of his age. 

Though of moderate stature, Luther hadacommandingpresence; his 
eyes were dark and brilliant, his voice rich, clear, and of great power. 
Decision and energy marked every movement. Carlyle has said of him, 
"No more valiant man ever lived in that Teutonic kindred whose char- 
acter is valor; the thing he will quail before exists not on this earth or 
under it." And Heine has remarked, " He was not only the greatest, 
but the most German man of our history. In his character all the faults 
and all the virtues of the Germans are combined on the largest scale. 
He was not only the tongue, but the sword of his time." 



The princes were: John the Steadfast, Elector of Saxony, who had 
5eded his brother, Frederic tlie Wise, in 1525; Prince Wolfgang of 



3. 

succeed 

Anhalt; the Dukes of (irnliciiliaECfii, < 'ellc, and Mecklenburg; two Counts 
of Mansfeld; George, ISIaitiia v." of I'.randciibiUK ; and Philip, Landgrave 
of Hesse. The cities were Magdeinug, St ras))urg, Nuremberg, Ulm, Con- 
stance, Reutlingen, Windsheim, Memmingen, Lindau, Kempen, Heil- 
bronn, Issny, Weissenburg, Nordlingen, and St. Gallen. 

4. Zwingli, or Zwingle, had received a liberal education at Basle and 
Vienna, and added to his familiarity with Plato, Aristotle, and Seneca 
a profound and intimate acquaintance with the sacred writers in their 
original languages. He was present, as chaplain, with a body of Swiss 
mercenaries, in the battle of Marignano; but afterwards used his great 
influence in dissuading his countrymen from the foreign military serv- 
ice which marked the period of greatest degradation in the Swiss re- 
publics. Becoming preacher to the famous monastery of Einsiedeln in 
1516, Zwingle found himself in the midst of the grossest superstitions 
of his age and country; and thenceforth he sought to substitute Chris- 
tian intelligence and right living in his hearers for mere observances. 
He was of iilmost exactly the same age as Luther, and the two reform- 
ers Iji'gaTi about the same time to preach against the errors and abuses 
wliicli l)i>tli found in their respective fields of labor. But while Luther 
was willing to retain all rites and doctrines which were not expressly 
forbidden in the Scriptures, Zwingle went further, and wished to reject 
all that were not expressly commanded by the same authority. Called 
in 1518 to be preacher in the Cathedral at Zurich, Zwingle produced 
much excitement by the bold and frank spirit of his teachings; but 
the great Council of the canton sustained him against all oi)i)onents, 
and often sought and followed his advice concerning ijublic aflairs. The 
reformed faith was declared to be the state-religion of Zurich, Glarus, 
and Bern, while the Catholic party was stronger in most of the other 
cantons. These ditterences led to open war, and Zwingle was killed in 
the battle of Cappel, 1531. 

5. William Farel was born at Gap, in France, 1480, studied in Paris, 
and |)it'aclied the reformed doctrines with great eloquence and success 
in must of the towns of Switzerland. It was ihroutih his influence that 
Protestantism was established in Geneva, and that Calvin was induced 
to take up his abode there. When both reformers were banished for a 
time from Geneva, Farel removed to Neufchatel, and founded a church 
which still exists. 

6. John Calvin was a native of Picardy, in northern France. Being 
destined for the priesthood, he was sent to the University of Paris, where 
he became intensely engaged in a study of the Scrijjtures, and was led 
to a belief in the reformed doctrines. The zeal and energy of his preach- 
ing soon drew upon him the displeasure of the church, ahj, quitting his 



NOTES. 279 

native land, he took refuge in Basle. Here he published the most Im- 
portant of all tiis works, the " Institutes of the Christian Religion," which 
he dedicated to King Francis I. Visiting Italy, he was kindly received 
by the Duchess Ren ^e, of Ferrara, a daughter of King Louis XII., who, 
like her cousin, Margaret of Navarre, was a warm friend of the reform- 
ers. But even her influence could not secure his safety, and he with- 
drew to Switzerland, inteTiding to proceed into Germany. At Geneva, 
however, he yielded to Farel's urgent entreatj'. and was elected jireacher 
and teacher of theology in that city. During the re-action which ensued 
against the severe iloctrine and discipline of the reformers, Calvin with- 
drew to Strasliurg, and established a reformed congregation which 
served as a model to all the Protestant churches in France. In 1541, he 
complied with the pressing invitation of the senate of Geneva, and re- 
turned to the city, 'Wl'.ere he was welcomed with great joy and afTection. 
The 23 years that remained of his life were spent in untiring ett'orts to 
establish the Genevese church and state on firm foundations of intel- 
ligence and morality, and the results of his labors are still felt. He lived 
in poverty, steadily refusing to receive more than a bare support from 
those whom he was serving. It should be remarked that what we now 
call Frencli Switzerland, had then no connection with the Swiss ('(Hil'eil- 
eration. Geneva was a free city, having thrown ofT the civil jurisdiction 
of her bishop-counts, together "with their spiritual authority. Valais was 
a part of the Duchy of Savoy, and Neufchdtel belonged to the principality 
of Orange, on the Rhine. All three became Swiss states in 1815. 

7. This princess, i-onietimes called the " Pearl of Valois," was dis- 
tinguished for her beauty, genius, and liberal culture. She was first 
married to the Duke of Alengon, but, two years after his deatli, in 152.5, 
she became the wife of Henry d'Albret, king of Navarre. She was 
tenderly attached to her brother, Francis I., and, during his captivity 
in Spain (H52), made the toilsome journey to Madrid to comfort him 
in his loneliness, and to negotiate a treaty with the emperor for his re- 
lease. 

Queen Margaret constantly used her influence for the protection of 
the Reformers and their adherents. The poet Marot was attached to 
her court, and dedicated to her his popular French version of the Psalms. 
The queen herself was the author of many works in prose and verse, 
of wliich the best known is a collection of tales called the "Heptameron." 
Her daughter, .leanne d' Albret, married Antony of Bourbon, and was 
the mother of King Henry IV., of France. See JiHi^-l, (jn- 

8. Solyman was an enlightened as well as a powerful pi-ince; he 
adorned his cities with magnificent buildings, provided for the instruc- 
tion of youth, and encouraged artists and learned men. Not content 
with ruling all the dominions of the eastern Ca'sars, he aimed to make 
Constantinople the capital of the world; and the dissensions in Chris- 
tendom gave him every prospect of adding all western Europe to his 
realm. While, in 1526, the royal Council of Hungary were disputing 
about the means of resisting him, he was marching directly upon them 
with oOd.diKi men and 300 well-mounted cannon of the latest and most 
effective design. King Louis II. awaited him, with only 20,000 men, on 
the marshy plain of Mohacz, but was defeated and slain. Solyman 
marched oh toward Buda, marking his track by the smoking ruins of 
towns and villages. After two weeks" residence in Buda, he withdrew, 
carrying with him the valuable library of ^Matthias Corvinus (§429, note), 
and many works of art, to enrich Constantinople. 

Three years later, having conquered Bosnia, Croatia, Dalmatia, and 
Slavonia, Solyman advanced again and laid siege to Vienna; but the 
German princes now forgot their dissensions for a time, and joined in 
so spirited a defense that he was compelled to retreat. 

Solyman long outlived his great ally and opponents in the West (see 
PofiO, .561), and the wave of Turkish conquests having reached its height 
in him, has ever since been declining. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE HOUSE OF ORLEANS IN FRANCE. 




iHE last six kings of the House of 
Valois (see Table, p. 214, and §405) 
belonged to the Orleans branch. 
The wars of Louis XII. in Italy have 
been mentioned (§445). At home he 
proved himself a wise and good king, 
by lightening the burdens and studying 
the welfare of his people. The hard 
lessons of his early life had not been 
lost upon him. He had been treated 
with injustice by the court, especially 
by the Lady of Beaujeu, a worthy 
daughter of Louis XL, who had been 
regent during her brother's minority; 
but when the early and sudden death 
of Charles VIII. raised him unexpect- 
edly to the throne, the courtiers began 
to fear that they had damaged their own prospects. Louis 
quieted their uneasiness by the generous remark that "it 
would ill become a king of France to remember the 
quarrels of a duke of Orleans." 

474. The character of Francis I. (A. D. 15 15 -1547) 
has been shown in his dealings with Charles V. and Henry 
VIII. , and with his Vaudois subjects (§468). He little 
cared though his people were starving at home, so long as 
his hunger for "glory" could be fed by conquests in 
Italy; and though he talked much of the "honor of a 
(280) 




A Leaguer. 



REIGN OF HENRY II. 281 

king," he broke his word without uneasiness. His inter- 
course with Italy, however, brought some increase of 
refinement to France; and he cUaimed the proud title of 
"Restorer of Letters and the Arts." (see §452). 

475. During the reign of his son, Henry H. (A. D. 
1547-T559), the Guises,^ an ambitious and powerful family 
descended from the dukes of Lorraine, gained great as- 
cendency at the French court. Mary of Guise became 
the wife of James V. of Scotland, and her daughter, the 
young Queen Mary (§498), was married to the dauphin, 
afterwards Francis W. During the regency of the elder 
queen, the Guises ruled the Scottish court, where they 
strongly opposed the English and Protestant influence. 

476. Henry H. married Catherine de' Medici, ^ a niece 
of Pope Clement VH. Though he persecuted his own 
heretical subjects, Henry allied himself with the Protestants 
of Germany, that he might seize Metz, Toul, and Verdun, 
free imperial cities, which until very lately (1870) were 
still held by France. The Duke of Guise distinguished 
himself by defending Metz against the Emperor Charles V., 
who, with a grand army of 100,000 men, vainly tried to 
recapture it. 

477. In war with Philip H., the French forces suffered 
a severe defeat at St. Quentin ; but Guise partly 
consoled the king by the capture of Calais,^ 

which, for more than 200 years, had been held by the 
English (§388). The treaty of Cateau Cambre'sis, two years 
later, closed this war with Philip. France agreed to resign 
all her claims in Italy, but retained Savoy. Calais was to 
be restored to England after eight years, or put to ransom 
for 1,500,000 crowns, to be paid by the French. But 
Calais, was never restored, nor was the ransom ever paid. 
During the festivities following the treaty, Henry II. was 
accidentally killed by the lance of one of his courtiers, 
whom he had. challenged to a tilt. 



2 82 MODERN HISTORY. 



478. The Reformed Church of France, deriving its doc- 
trines from Calvin, was first organized in the reign of 
Henry II. The French Protestants were now first called 
Huguenots. During the successive reigns of Henry's three 
sons, their mother, Catherine de' Medici, tried to rule 
France by playing off the Catholic party, led by the Guises, 
against the Huguenots who had the great Bourbon'* family, 
including the princes of Conde and the young king of 
Navarre,^ at their head. 

479. Francis II." reigned less than a year and a half, 
and was succeeded, in 1560, by his brother, Charles IX., 
then only ten years old. The religious wars broke out 
with an attack of the duke of Guise and his armed retainers 
upon a congregation of Huguenots, who were met for 
worship in a barn. Frightful scenes of violence soon 
occurred in all parts of France. The pope and the king 
of Spain sent aid to the Catholics, while Elizabeth of En- 
gland furnished men and money to the Huguenots. 

480. The (lueen-mother, who cared only too little for 
any religion, but who wanted to marry her favorite son 
Henry to the tjueen of England, at length procured a 
treaty of peace, by which the Huguenots were guaranteed 
freedom of worship, and restoration to all their rights. 
The good Admiral Coligny,''one of their leaders, was in- 
vited to court, and was treated with the greatest affection 
by Charles. 

481. Two years later, the Princess Margaret was married 
to the young king Henry of Navarre, now the chief of the 
Huguenots, and all good men rejoiced in this token of a 
settled peace. It is hard to tell when the friendly policy 

was abandoned, but within six days after the 

ug 24, 1572. wedding, before daylight of St. Bartholomew's 

Day, a signal was given from the palace for a general 

massacre of the Huguenots! Instantly, as if a myriad 

of wild beasts had been let loose, the streets of Paris 



MASSACJiE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 283 

resounded with the yells of murderers and the despairing 

cries of their victims. Eight days and nights these horrid 

scenes went on in Paris, and they were repeated in all the 
cities of France. 

482. King Charles had opposed his mother's plan, first 
suggested to her by the Duke of (kiise. She took as an 
order from him his frantic exclamation; "Well, then, kill 
them all, that not one may live to reproach me ! " Soon, 
however, his better soul awoke, and conscience never 
afterwards allowed him to rest. His sleep was broken by 
the cries of his victims, or by visions of their blood-stained 
faces, and the only approach to comfort he enjoyed was 
in listening to the hymns of his old Huguenot nurse. He 
died within two years of the massacre, in the 24th year 
of his age, A. D. 1574. 

483. His brother, Henry HI., was a shallow youth, who 
gave more attention to his monkeys, parrots, and fantastic 
dress, than to the parties that were tearing France to pieces. 
The great feudal chiefs — even commandants of single towns 
and fortresses — set up independent governments in con- 
tempt of the royal power. The king's only surviving 
brother joined the Huguenot party in order to secure some 
new provinces for himself, and obtained for them a more 
favorable treaty than they had ever before enjoyed. 

484. The Guises and most of the Catholic nobles now 
joined themselves in a league for the extirpation of the 
Huguenots. They accepted the protection of the king of 
Spain, and secretly planned the dethronement of Henry 
HI. Henry yielded all that they asked. He declared 
himself the head of the league, hoping thus to disarm its 
treasonable designs; and he revoked all grants of freedom 
of conscience. His weak policy did not succeed; his 
nominal leadership only lasted three months, and the duke 
of Guise, a man of immense force of character, was always 
the true leader. The death of the king's brother made the 



MODERN HISTORY. _ 

f 



leaguers yet more zealous, for Henry of Navarre, the head 
of the Huguenot party, was the next heir to the throne. 
The Duke of Guise seized Paris, and set up a revolutionary 
government, which continued six years in force. 

485. Unable to meet this powerful subject in a fair field, 
Henry invited Guise to a conference, and caused him to be 
murdered in his very presence, A. D. 1588. This base deed 
was soon requited; for a Dominican monk, named Clement, 
obtained an audience, and stabbed the king to the heart. 
Henry HI. was last of the descendants of Philij) of Valois, 
who had ruled France 260 years. The queen-mother, 
Catherine de' Medici, died a few days after the murder of 
Guise. 

Point out, on Maps 7 and 13, the (hicliy of Lorraine. The cities 
of Metz, Toil!, Verdun, Paris, Calais. 

Read Histories of France ah'eady mentioned, and Pressens^'s His- 
tory of Protestantism in France. 



TABLE — HOUSE OF VALOIS. 



Philip VI. 

I 
John. 

Chakles V. 



Ch.^rles VI. Louis, Duke of Orleans. 

I I 



I I I 

Ch.\rles VIl. Charles, Duke of Orleans. John, Count of Aii^ouleme. 

I I " I - 

Louis XI. Louis XII. Charles, Count of An;;ouleme. 



Charles VIII. 




Francis I. 

1 




1 
Henry II. m. 

1 


Catherine de' Medici 


Francis II. 


Charles IX. 


Henry III, 



NOTES. 285 



NOTES. 

1. Lorraine was then a German duchy, and the Guises were regarded 
as foreigners by the French. The first Dulce of Guise was a younger son 
of Dulie R6n(5 II., of Lorraine, and received liis title from King Francis 
I., wliom lie served with distinction in the battle of Marignano and 
elsewhere (H-19)- 

It was his son, the second Duke of Guise, who defended Metz in l.S5;3, 
and captured Calais in 1557. Mary of Guise, Queen Regent of Scotland, 
was daughter of the first and sister of the second Duke. 

2. Catherine was daughter of Lorenzo II.— grandson of Lorenzo tlie 
Magnificent (^j^ 370, 429, and note), and was born at Florence in 1519. 
Married in 1533, she had a comparatively quiet and unobtrusive part in 
public affiiirs, as Dauphiness and afterwards as Queen-consort, finding 
her satisfaction in the grace and brilliancy of lier court. Her real am- 
bition became apparent during the successive reigns of her three sons. 
As regent for Charles IX., and later, by artfully balancing the several 
parties, she held, for many years, the chief power in France, and used 
it for purely selfish ends, without regard to justice or mercy. Shakes- 
peare is said to have depicted her character, as well as the similar traits 
of Jezebel and Herodias, in his Lady Macbeth. 

The only good trait, if we may call it such, which this singular woman 
possessed, was tlie love of the fine arts, which she shared witli all her 
family. 

3. "For the last ten years the French had kept their eyes on Calais. 
The occupation of a Frencli fortress by a foreign power was a perpetual 
Insult to the national pride, while it gave England inconvenient au- 
thority in the narrow seas. The defenses had been repaired by Henry 
VIII.; but, in the wasteful times of Edward, tlie work had fallen again 
Into ruin, and Mary, straitened by debt, [and] a diminished revenue, 
had found neither means nor leisure to attend to them. . . . Lord 
Wentworth was left at Calais with not more than 500 men. A procla- 
mation had forbidden the export of corn from England, and, by the 
middle of the winter, there was an actual scarcity of food. 

"On the (ith of January, after a furious cannonade. Guise stormed the 
town. The Eny;lisli attempted to blow it up when they could not save 
it, but their powdei-f rain had been washed with water, and they failed, 
wentworth, feeling that further resistance would lead to useless slaughter, 
demanded a parley, and, after a short discussion, accepted the terms 
of surrender oft'ered by Guise. The garrison and the inhabitants of Ca- 
lais, amounting in all, men, women, and children, to 5,000 souls, were 
permitted to retire to England with their lives, and nothing more. The 
spoil was enormous, and the plunder of St. Quentin was not unjustly 
revenged; jewels, plate, and money were deposited on the altars of the 
churclies, and the inhabitants, carrying with them the clothes which 
they wore, were sent as homeless beggars in the ensuing week across 
the Channel. Then only, when it was too late, the Queen roused her- 
self. As soon as Calais had definitely fallen, all the English counties 
were called on by proclamation to contribute their musters. But the 
opportunity which had been long offered, and long neglected, was now 
altogether gone; the ships were ready, troops came, and arms came, but 
change of weather came also, and westerly gales and storms. . . . The 
fragments of the wrecked fleet were strewn on Dover beach, or swal- 
lowed In the quicksands of the Goodwin. 

"The last remnant of the continental dominions of the Plantagenets 
was gone. Measured by substantial value, the loss of Calais was a gain. 
, Englisii princes were never again to lay claim to the crown of France, 
and the possession of a fortress on French soil was a perpetual irrita- 
tion. But Calais was called the ' brightest jewel in the English crown.' 
A jewel it was, useless, costly, but dearly prized." — Abridged from Froude's 
History of Emjland, Cli. XXXIV. 

4. The Bourbons date from Robert, Count of Clermont, a younger son 
of King Louis IX. His son Louis served Charles IV. so well, in his wars 
with the English, that he received the ducal title, and became the first 
Duke of Bourbon. One of the most powerful members of the family 



286 MODERN HISTORY. 



was that Duke and Constable of Bourbon {\\h\), who deserted the cause 
of F'rancis I., and fell In the attack on Rome In 1527 (§461). "Consta- 
ble" was the title of the highest military officer in France 

The princes of Cond^ took their title from the town of Cond^, in 
Hainault, which, with other towns, was added to the possessions of the 
family, in 1487, by the marriage of iSIary of Luxembourg, a great Neth- 
erland heiress, with the heart of the House of Bourbon. "The Great 
Conde," mentioned in gi;H18, OI'J, was the sixth of her descendants. The 
Bourbons occupied the throne of France (see next note) from 1589 to 
tiie Revolution, and, after the fall of Napoleon, from 1815 to 1848, if we 
include Louis Pliilippe, who belonged to the j'ounger Orleans branch 
of tlie family. 

5. Navarre was a little kingdom on the confines of France and Spain, 
and often a subject of dispute between the sovereigns ot those countries. 
Its independence dated from 887, but in 1.512, Ferdinand the Catholic 
wrested the part of it which lay south of the Pyrenees from Jean 
d'Albret, and governed it thenceforth by viceroys of his own family, 
until it was absorlted as a mere province of Spain. The northern or 
Frencli portion continued to give a title, and little else, to .several mem- 
bers of the family of All)ret, until it passed, by the marriage of Jeanne, 
sole heiress of that family, to the head of the House of Bourbon. Her 
.son. King Henry of Navan-e, became Henry IV. of France, 1.589. Queen 
Jeanne herself died at Paris, shortly before the marriage of her sou 
with the Princess Margaret. 

6. Francis II., the eldest son C)f Henry II. and (Catherine de' Medici, 
was in his seventceiitli year when he came to the throne, and was little 
more than a iHi))pet in "the hands of his wife's two uncles, the Duke of 
Guise and the Cardinal of Ijorraine (H75). The King of Navarre, the 
Prince of Conde and other great nobles, incensed by seeing France thus 
ruled by foreign adventurers, fornuMl a national party in alliance with 
the Pro'testants, and tried by the "Conspiracy of Amboise" to get tlie 
young king into their own power. The cons]ilracy, which took its name 
from the royal castle of Amboise, was discovered and defeated. The 
Prince of Cohd6 was condemned to lose his head; l)Ut the death of the 
king i)revented the execution of the sentence. Dec. .5, 15ti0. 

7. Gaspard de Coligny (ko-leen-ye) was one of the most liberal men 
of his time. Henry II. made him Admiral of France in 1.5.52, and he 
soon conceived the idea of founding, in the newly discovered countries 
beyond the Atlantic, a great French empire which should at once in- 
crease the glory of France and aflford a refuge to those of her children 
who were now' persecuted for their faith. In 1555, two vessels, laden 
with French emigrants, sailed for the coast of Brazil. But the comman- 
dant, Villegagnon, was either faithless or incomijetent, and the Portu- 
guese .soon drove out the inti'uders up(jii land which they claimed (i 4.!ii). 
Coligny's two attempts to plant colonies within the present limits of 
the United States, were equally unsuccessful, the only permanent resull 
being the name Carolina, which was given to both settlements in honor 
of Charles IX. 

Coligny defended St. Quentin for the king, and remained a prisoner 
after tlie capture of the place. Having embraced the reformed religion 
about 1.5()0, he acted as second in command to the Prince of Cond*^ in 
the wars against Catherine de' Medici and the Guises. The young King, 
Cliarles, seems to have felt a real confidence and respect for the Ad- 
miral. Four days after the wedding of tlie Princess Margaiet with 
Henry of Navarre, < oligny was shot in the .street, though not fatally, 
by a follower of the Duke of (inise. The Queen-mother and the King 
visited the wounded man in his bed-chamber, and expressed indigna- 
tion at the crime, whicli they promised to punish. But, on the night 
of the general massacre. Guise, with his armed retainers, came to Colig- 
ny's house; a servant, named Le Besmre, ascended to the Admiral's room 
and stabbed him several times as he lay in bed. " Young man," said the 
victim, "you ought to respect my gray hairs; but, do what you will, 
you can only shorten m.v life by a few days." He was quickly killed, 
and his body was thrown out of the window into the court below, 
where it fell at the leetofthe Duke. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE TUDORS IN ENGLAND. 




Costume of XVI. 
Century. 



Y marrying a daugiiter of Edward IV., 
Henry VII. (A. I). 14S5-1509) united 
the rival houses of York and Lancaster, 
and ended the Wars of the Roses 
(>j;§ 396-399). The Yorkists, however, 
jnit forward two claimants^ to the crown, 
one jiretending to be the Earl of War- 
wick, nephew of Edward IV. and grand- 
son of the " King-maker,"" the other 
personating young Richard of York, 
who had been smothered in the Tower 
(^ 39^)- Both rebellions were easily 
put down ; but the king's narrow, grasp- 
ing disposition did not win the love of 
his people. 

487. The middle class made great advances, however, 
during this reign. Poor nobles were permitted to sell 
their estates, which were Ijought, in man)' cases, by thrifty 
citizens. The number of retainers in noblemen's house- 
holds was also limited by law, and thus a great many 
idlers were driven to honest work. Englishmen liad their 
full share in exi)loring the bays and coasts of the New 
World — a welcome field of adventure for many bold and 
restless spirits, who, like their ancestors (§§328-329), 
dehghted in the perils of the sea. 

488. Henry VIII. (A. 1). 1509 -1547) succeeded, at the 
age of eighteen, to a clear title and a full treasury. He 
Avas the first king since Richard II. (§390) whose claim 

(287) 



MODERN HISTORY. 



to the crown had been undisputed, and his popularity was 
unbounded. For the first twenty years of his reign, no 
one doubted his sincere desire to rule justly. He mar- 
ried Catherine of Spain (§ 444); his eldest sister was 
already wife of the king of Scotland, (see Table, p. 295). 

489. Henry's ambition soon led him into wars on the 
continent. Hoping to regain the almost forgotten posses- 
sions of his ancestors (§§ 350, 381) he invaded France, and 
gained the "Battle of the Spurs," so called from the sud- 
den flight of the enemy. Meanwhile James IV. of Scot- 
land marched into England, but he was de- 

'^'^' feated and slain with 10,000 of his followers at 
Flodden Field. Henry hastened to make peace with his 
sister, who was regent for her infant son, James V. Peace 
with France was soon afterward sealed by the marriage 
of his younger sister with Louis XH. 

490. Henry's chief minister was Thomas Worsey,"who, 
by his own remarkable talents and tlie king's favor, was 
raised from a humble position to great power. He was 
archbishop of York, cardinal, and chancellor of the king- 
dom; his palaces almost equaled the king's in magnificence 
and crowds of attendants. The emperor Charles flattered 
Wolsey, as the surest way to win the favor of Henry 
(§ 45°)' H^ gave him the revenues of two Spanish bishop- 
rics, and promised bis influence to make him pope. Two 
elections passed (§§ 451, 460) without the fulfillment of this 
promise, and Wolsey became the chief opponent of Queen 
Catherine and the Spanish party in England. 

491. Of all the children of Henry and Catherine, only 
the sickly princess Mary survived infancy. Henry saw in 
the death of his sons a sure proof of the wrath of heaven 
for his marriage with his brother's widow, which was con- 
trary to the rules of the church. Wolsey, as priest and 
counselor, encouraged the thought. His importance would 
have been increased by arranging a new marriage with a 



MAP No. X. 

CHIEF ENGLISH WRITERS 

OF THE TUDOR AND EARLY STUART PERIODS. 



Prose Writers. 



Sir Thomas More, A. D. 1480-1535: "Utopia," etc. 

Wm. Tyndale, 1485-1536: Translation of New Testament. 

Roger Ascham, 1515-1568: " Toxophilus;" "The School- 
master." 

Richard Hooker, 1554-1600: "Ecclesiastical Polity." 

Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586: "Arcadia;" "Defense of 
Poesie. " 

Sir Walter Raleigh, 1 552-1 618 : "History of the World," etc. 

William Camden, 1551-1623: "Britannia," etc. 

Richard Hakluyt, 1553-1616: "Voyages," etc. 

Francis Bacon, 1561-1626: "Essays;" "Advancement of 
Learning," etc. 

Robert Burton, 1576-1639: "Anatomy of Melancholy," etc. 

Izaak Walton, 1593-1683: "The Complete Angler," etc. 

Poets and Dramatists. 

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, 1516-1547: Poems. 
Edmund Spenser, 1553-1599: "The Shepherd's Calendar;'' 

"The Faerie Queene," etc. 
Thos. Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, 1536-1608: "Mirror oi 

Magistrates," etc. 
Samuel Daniel, 1562-1619: " Musophilus," etc. 
Christopher Marlowe, 1565-1593: "Doctor Faustus," etc. 
William Shakespeare, 1564-1616: Plays, Poems, and Sonnets. 
Ben Jonson, 1574-L637 : Comedies, Masques, etc. 
Beaumont, 1585-1616, and Fletcher, 1576-1625 : Plays. 
Philip Massinger, 1584-1640: Comedies, etc. 
Robert Herrick, 1591-1674: Lyric Poems. 
Francis Quarles, 1 592-1 644: Poems. 
George Herbert, 1593-1632: "The Temple," etc. 
Sir John Suckling, 1609-1643 : " Ballad on a Wedding," etc. 



STEPS IN EUROPEAN DISCOVERIES. 



Canary Islands discovered by Spaniards about A. D. 
Western coast of Africa explored by Portuguese about 
Madeira discovered and settled by Portuguese about 
Cape of Good Hope passed by Diaz 
San Salvador, Hayti, and Cuba disc, by Columbus 
North American Continent discovered by Cabot 
South American Continent discovered by Columbus 
Sea-route to India established by Vasco de Gama 1497- 
Brazil discovered by Cabral 

Florida and the Gulf Stream, by Ponce de Leon 
Pacific Ocean at Darien, by Nunez de Balboa 
Mexico disc, and conquered by Spaniards 15 17- 

Philippine Islands discovered, and the world ) 
circumnavigated by Magellan's fleet ) 
Harbors of N. Y. and Nevv-port disc, by Verrazzano 
River St. Lawrence visited by Cartier 1534; 

Peru conquered by Spaniards i53i~ 

Pacific coast of N. America explored by Spaniards 1540 
Mississippi River discovered by Ferdinand de Soto 
Richard Chancellor discovers site of Archangel 
Martin Frobisher explores the northern seas 1576- 
Davis Strait discovered by John Davis 1585- 

Australia discovered by Dutch navigators 
Baffin Bay explored by William Baffin 
New Zealand discovered by Tasman 
Mississippi River explored by La Salle 
Sandwich Islands re-discovered by Captain Cook 
Africa crossed from east to west by Livingstone 
Congo River explored by Stanley 



360. 

415- 
420. 
487. 
492. 

497- 
498. 
499. 

500: 
512 
513- 
521- 

522. 

524- 
535- 
536. 

-42. 

541- 
553- 
578- 
587- 
605. 
616. 
642. 
682. 
778. 
850. 
876. 



REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 289 

French princess, and so he pushed the application for the 
king's divorce. 

492. Pope Clement (^ 461) had a hard question to de- 
cide. The Reformation had so affected all the countries 
in Europe, that if he offended the emperor — Catherine's 
nephew — Germany and the Netherlands would certainly 
become Protestant; while, if he refused the divorce, both 
England and France were almost equally sure to separate 
from the Roman Church. He tried to gain time by par- 
leys. Wolsey, finding that the king chose to marry Anne 
Boleyn, a maid of honor to Queen Catherine, instead of 
the French princess, lost his zeal for the divorce. 

493. This occasioned his fall. He was ordered to retire 
to his archbishopric of York ; but the ne.xt year he was 
arrested on a charge of high treason, and died on his way 
to London. On his death-bed he uttered these memorable 
words: "Had I but served my God as diligently as I have 
served the king, He would not have given me over in 
my gray hairs." Cran'mer, an obscure priest, now advised 
the king to lay the question of his divorce before all the 
universities in Europe. Their opinion was 

1 ^ • , , A. D. 1533. 

agamst it; but Cranmer was raised to the 

primacy of England, and held a court in which he 

pronounced the marriage annulled. 

494. Parliament confirmed the decision, and recognized 
Anne Boleyn as the lawful wife of their king. They had 
previously declared Henry to be the head of the English 
Church, and annulled the pope's claim to tribute and obe- 
dience. A subsequent parliament suppressed all the abbeys 
and convents in England. Part of their revenues were 
applied to schools, colleges, and six new bishoprics, but a 
large part went to enrich the courtiers; and Charles V., 
referring to the immense loans which former kings had 
drawn from the abbeys, laughingly remarked that his 

Hist —19, 



29© MODERN HISTORY. 

"brother of England had killed the goose that laid the 
golden egg." 

495. Though he had thus separated from the pope, 
Henry hated the Reformation. He had distinguished him- 
self, in his early years, by writing a book against Luther, 
which gained for him the title, " Defender of the Faith." 
His wrath was pretty ec^ually di\ided between the Catho- 
lics, who denied his supremacy, and the Protestants, who 
disbelieved his doctrines. Among the former, who died 
for conscience' sake, were Sir Thomas More, the brightest 
genius and most \irtuous and amiable man of the time ; 
Fisher, the good bishop of Rochester, and the monks of 
the Charterhouse in London, a brotherhood whom scandal 
never accused of any other crime than faithfulness to their 
convictions. 

496. Three years from her coronation, Queen Anne was 
beheaded on frivolous charges, and her late attendant, Jane 
Sey'mour, became queen. The next year, the whole nation 
rejoiced in the birth of a prince, who was afterward King 
Edward VL Queen Jane died peaceably; and the king's 
next marriage was with Anne of Cleves,^ a German prin- 
cess. She failed to please him, and the marriage was 
annulled. The misconduct of Catherine Howard,''his fifth 1 
wife, compelled the king to sign her death-warrant, and * 
she was beheaded on Tower Hill. His sixth and last wife, 
Catherine Parr,^ nearly lost her head in conseciuence of a 
theological discussion, but her ready wit saved her life. 

497. In his last years Henry became an intolerable 
tyrant, and the lives of some of his most noble and 
blameless subjects were sacrificed to his suspicion. He 
died in 1547, the same year with Francis L of France. 
His son, Edward VL (A. I). 1547- 1553), was only nine 
years old, and the duke of Somerset was made Protector. 
He was a warm friend of the Reformation. A commission 
appointed by him, with Archbishop Cranmer at its head, 



LADY JANE GREY. 29 1 



gave to the English Church the forms of doctrine and 
worship which it still retains. 

498. James V. of Scotland (§ 489) had died in 1542, 
leaving only an infant daughter, the afterwards celebrated 
Mary, Queen of Scots, to inherit his crown. A leading 
poHcy of Henry VIII., and of Somerset after him, was to 
marry the young Edward to this baby queen, and thus 
peaceably unite the two kingdoms. The Protestant nobles 
of Scotland favored this alliance, but their opponents hur- 
ried the little queen over to France and betrothed her to 
the dauphin. 

499. Somerset's talents were not equal to the ' great 
changes he tried to effect. He was at length deprived of 
all his offices, condemned for treason, and beheaded. His 
power passed into the hands of his rival, the duke of 
Northumberland.^ This unscrupulous plotter persuaded, the 
young king to set aside his two sisters, Mary and Eliza- 
beth, who were next him in the succession by his father's 
will, and to bequeath the crown to his cousin, Jane Grey, ^ 
who was married to Guilford Dudley, Northumberland's 
own son (see Table, p. 295). This having been done, 
Edward's health declined more rapidly, and he died in the 
sixteenth year of his age. 

500. Lady Jane was crowned, against her will, and for 
ten days a small circle called her queen. But the true 
queen, Mary Tudor, was welcomed to London with shouts 
of loyalty; and Northumberland, with his chief accom- 
plices, was beheaded for high treason. Lady Jane and her 
husband were spared on account of their youth and inno- 
cence; but the next year a rebellion of some of their 
friends brought them to the scaffold. 

501. Queen Mary (A. D. 1 553-1 558) soon consented to 
a marriage with her cousin, Philip of Spain (§ 470), though 
her best councilors dreaded that great power which ruled 
so large a part of Europe and the New World {% 444), 



292 



MODERN HISTORY. 



I 



and was believed to be aiming at universal dominion. 
Mary's strongest desire was to restore the pope's suprem- 
acy in England, and in this she was aided by her husband 
and her cousin, Cardinal Pole, who was appointed papal 
legate. The latter was a good man and counseled gentle 
measures, but Philip and Mary leaned rather to the brutal 
policy of Gardiner, under which nearly three hundred 
persons were burned to death as heretics. Among them 
were Cranmer and the good bishops, Ridley and Latimer. 

502. To please her husband, Mary plunged into a war 
with France, and lost Calais, the last remaining foothold 
of the English on the continent. Vexation at this loss 
and at Philip's neglect threw her into a fever, of which 
she died in the sixth year of her reign (see §477). 

503. The accession of Elizabeth (A. D. 1558-1603), T 
daughter of Anne Boleyn, was welcomed with universal 
joy. Learning wisdom by her sister's mistake, she refused 
all offers of marriage from Philip of Spain and others, 
declaring that she was wedded only to her realm, and | 
would never give it a foreign master. Her first Parliament i 
restored the English Church as in Edward's day, with the j 
queen instead of the pope at its head. Almost as many | 
persons lost their lives by denying Elizabeth's supremacy, 

as had suffered under her unhappy sister's persecutions ; 
but it must be remembered that many of them were also i 
traitors. The pope had publicly denied Elizabeth's claims 
as queen, and her mother's as wife (§492); and her 
cousin, Mary of Scotland, who was in fact the next heir, 
had, with his approval, adopted the arms and title of 
Queen of England (see Table, p. 223). 

504. Two years after Elizabeth's accession Mary re- 
turned, a widow, to her native land. She had been edu- 
cated as a Catholic, amid the gay and elegant amusements 
of the French court, and both her religion and her manners 
shocked the grave Reformers who now had the chief in- 



REIGN OF ELIZABETH. 293 

fluence in Scotland. In 1565 she married Lord Darnley 
(see Table), a dissolute and contemptible youth, who soon 
lost her confidence. In revenge for her displeasure, he 
brutally murdered her secretary at her very feet. A few 
months later, the house in which Darnley alone was sleep- 
ing was blown up with gunpowder, and he was killed. 
The dark suspicion which fell upon the queen was deep- 
ened by her marrying the Earl of Bothwell, who was known 
to have been concerned in the murder of Darnley. 

505. Mary was imprisoned, and her infant son was 
crowned. She escaped, was defeated in battle, and took 
refuge in England, where she was tried by a commission of 
Scottish and English nobles for the murder of her husband. 
No sentence was pronounced, but she was imprisoned nine- 
teen years in England, the center of innumerable plots 
against the life and government of Elizabeth, and was at 
length beheaded in Fotheringay Castle. 

506. Elizabeth, meanwhile, by wise and thrifty manage- 
ment, had restored happiness and order to her kingdom. 
While Philip's persecutions in the Netherlands were driv- 
ing the most skillful and industrious of his subjects into 
exile, Elizabeth welcomed all artisans on condition of their 
taking one English apprentice each, and thus many fine 
manufactures became established in the country. English 
merchants and sailors joined heartily in the maritime 
adventures of the time. 

507. Francis Drake" sailed around the globe, and came 
back laden with Spanish gold. Others penetrated the 
northern seas and opened a trade with Archangel in 
Russia, while the gold and ivory of the Guinea coast en- 
riched the merchants of Southampton. Sir Walter Raleigh® 
attempted a settlement in a region of North America, 
which was named Virginia, in honor of the maiden queen. 
The enterprise was abandoned for a time, owing to perils 



294 MODERN HISTORY. 

at home ; but the capital of North Carohna still commem- 
orates the gallant adventurer. 

508. In 1588 Philip of Spain fitted out an immense 
fleet to avenge the death of Mary Stuart, and assert his 
own claim to the English crown, which she had bequeathed 
him. If any thing had been wanting to unite all English 
hearts in love and loyalty to Elizabeth, this insolence would 
have supplied it. All ranks, classes, and religions worked 
together with a common zeal for the defense, and Eliza- 
beth proved her generous confidence by bestowing on Lord 
Howard of Effingham, a Catholic nobleman, the command 
of her fleet. 

509. At length the "Invincible Armada" appeared, 
stretching seven miles from wing to wing, and composed 
of the largest vessels that had ever been seen. The Eng- 
lish ships were smaller and lighter, but their captains knew 
the coast and could easily harass the clumsy enemy. In 
the "English Salamis," as in the Greek (§§54, 118), valor 
and patriotism won the day against immensely superior 
numbers. Attempting to retreat northward, the Spaniards 
were wrecked among the Orkneys and upon the west coast 
of Ireland ; and it was only a tattered remnant of the In- 
vincible Armada that re-entered the ports of Spain. From 
this time England ruled the sea. The great Spanish galle- 
ons, laden with the gold of Mexico and Peru, often fell 
into the hands of Drake and his brave comrades ; and their 
capture lessened Philip's power for mischief. 

510. Ireland was, as usual, in rebellion, and Elizabeth's 
chief favorite, the young Earl of Essex, failed in his 
attempt to subdue it. The queen's displeasure drove him 
into sedition, and she reluctantly signed his death-warrant, 
but she never recovered from the grief which it cost her. 
She shut herself up in her palace, refused food, and died 
in the 70th year of her age and the 45th of her reign. 



FAMILY OF TUDOR. 295 



With her ended the EngHsh Tudors, and James VI. of 
Scotland, son of the unfortunate Mary, came to the throne. 

511. The EHzabethan Age was, perhaps, the brightest 
of England's literary eras. The wonderful events and dis- 
coveries of the day kept all minds active, and the language 
reached its perfection in the musical verse of Spenser, the 
romance of Sidney, the rugged treatises of Hooker, the 
wise philosophy of Bacon, and the wonderful dramas of 
Shakespeare. The queen was well versed in Greek, Latin, 
and several modern languages. 

The success of Elizabeth's reign was largely owing to 
her able ministers, Ce'cil, Wal'singham, and others ; but, 
in spite of many faults of personal character, the queen 
herself must rank among the greatest sovereigns of her 
time. 

Read Green's "Short History," Ch. VI, Sections iv and v, and 
Ch. VII. 



THE TUDORS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 
Henry VII. 



Margaret m. i, , m. 2, Douglas. Henry VIII. Mary m. Brandon, 

ya7«?j- /f. of Scotland. Earl of Angus. | Duke of Suffolk. 

I I i I 

Howard \ I. M.^vry. Elizabeth. | 

James ]'. m. Mary Margaret ni. Stuart, Earl of Lenno.x. Frances m. 

I of Guise. I Henry Grey, 

D. of Suffolk. 

Mary, married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Jane Grey, 

I beheaded, 1554. 

James VI. of Scotland, afterwards James I. of England. 



Sovereigns of England arc in Capitals, those of Sco/land in Italics. 



296 



MODERN HJSTOK Y. 



NOTES. 

1. The first of these "pretenders" was Lambert Siranel, a baker's 
boy, whom an Oxford priest, named Simon, undcrtooli to instruct in 
tlie belravior suitable to a prince. Wlien liis lessons were completed, 
he was accompanied by liis tutor to Ireland, where the people were 
known to be warmly attached to the House of York, and esi)rcially to 
the Duke of Clarence, father to the real earl whom Himnel prisouated, 
who had been their lord-lieutenant. Landing in Dublin, tlie sui)pi)sed 
prince was greeted with loyal acclamations as " King Edward the iSixtli." 
In England the imposture was quickly exposed by bringing the true 
Edward from his prison in tlie Tower, and parading him in the streets 
of London. But the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, widow of Charles 
the Bold (§413, and note, p. 233), either willingly deceived or easily con- 
vinced by the representations that were made to her, sent over a force 
of German mercenaries to co-operate with Simon's Irish troops. The 
rebellion waseflFectually crushed, however, by the royal victory at Stoke, 
and the pretended Plantagenet, being too insignificant to be feai-ed, 
became a scullion in the king's kitchen. 

The second attempt was more serious. It was led by Perkin, or Pe- 
terkin, Warbeck, son of a merchant of Tournay. He probably bore some 
real resemblance to the Yorkist princes, and, as the murder in the Tower 
had been carefully concealed, there was no apparent improbability in 
the story of the escape and subsequent hiding of Richard. In any case, 
there were enemies of Henry VII. who M'er(> willing to countenance 
any claimant of his crown. King Charles VIII., of France (jj 441-445), 
entertained the Pretender in Paris with all the sjilendor that befitted a 
royal reception, and the Duchess of Burgundy, after close scrutiny and 
questioning, professed herself perfectly satisfied that he was her long- 
lost nephew. The King of Scotland went farther, and not only received 
him with royal honors, but gave him a noble lady for his wife, and 
invaded England in the hope that at least the Yorkshii-e people would 
rise in favor of their native prince. But this hope was disappointed, 
and Perkin took refuge in Ireland. Meanwhile, the poor miners of 
Cornwall had been driven to desperation by the heavy taxes laid 
upon them by the king; and. when the pretended prince appeared 
among them, he was soon at the head of 7,UU0 brave men. But, on the 
approach of the royal army, "King Richard IV." fied, leaving his fol- 
lowers to their fate. Tlie Plantagenets, with all their faults, never lacked 
personal bravery; and thus Perkin's imposture was proved by his own 
act. No one mourned when he was hanged at Tyburn; but many were 
shocked and grieved a few days later by the iuiquitous execution of the 
young Earl of Warwick, an innocent victim of other people's crimes. 

2. There is a tradition that Wolsey was the son of a butcher; but if 
so, it is the more remarkable that he obtained his degree at Oxford 
when only fifteen years of age. He first distinguished himself as chap- 
lain to Henry VII. by the promptness and tact with which he executed 
a difficult mission to the Emperor Maximilian. Early in the reign of 
Henry VIII., Wolsey became royal almoner, and, thus introduced to 
the king's notice, his talents as a courtier ensured his rise. Though he 
was really the mainspring of all tliat was done in Eimland, he contrived 
to make every measure of the government appear the direct act of the 
king, to whom he behaved with the most humble deference and submis- 
sion. Like the king himself, Wolsey was a friend of the New Learning, 
and a munificent patron of learned men. He lounded the first profes- 
sorship of Greek in England; he established a school at Ipswich and a 
college at Oxford. The latter was first called Cardinal College, l)ut. after 
his fall, its name was changed to Christ's Church. Its magnificent 
buildings still attest the Cardinal's taste and liberality. His two man- 
sions, Hampton Court and Whitehall, became royal palaces. 

3. The Duke of Cleves, Anne's brother, was one of the greatest 
Protestant princes on the continent; for, besides his hereditary provinces 
of Cleves, Berg, .Tuliers, and Ravensberg— tlie territories which after- 
wards constituted West Prussia— he had latel.y become possessed of Zut- 
phen and Guelders. Henry was led to this marriage by his resentment 
against Francis I., who had broken his friendly alliance, and was even 



NOTES. 297 

said to be plotting with Charles Y. and the King of Scotland for a par- 
tition of Henry's dominions. Though he had been willing to please his 
Protestant courtiers and ally himself with tlie league of German princes, 
Henry's marriage was as transient as the cause out of which it grew. 
Anne meekly accepted a home and revenues in England, and snrvived 
the King by ten years. 

4. Catherine Howard was a niece of the Duke of Norfolk, and 
cousin of Anne Boleyn. During her married life, the duke had much 
influence at court, and used it to oppose Protestant interests. Shortly 
before the King's death, Norfolk and his accomplished son, the Earl of 
Surrej% were arrested for treason and sentenced to execution. Surrey 
was beheaded, but tlie timely decease of Henry spared his father's life. 

5. Catherine Parr was the widow of Lord Latimer, when, in 15-13, she 
became the wife of Henry VIII. With the progress of disease, the king 
became increasingly foml of disputes, and the liveliness of the queen's 
replies once offended him so seriously that he was on the point of or- 
dering her to the scaffold. But, perceiving her danger, Catherine assured 
him that she had only taken the opposite side to afford him the pleas- 
ure of refuting her, and lest the discussion should grow dull. The king 
could hardly afford to lose so entertaining a companion, and was soon 
reconciled. 

6. Northumberland was a son of Edmund Dudley, a lawyer who had 
been a notorious tool of Henry VII. in extorting money from his sub- 
jects (H86). On the accession of Hein-y VIII., Dudley was tried and con- 
demned to death. His son, however, gained the King's favor, and was 
made Lord High Admiral of England. His ambition knew no limits. 

7. No character in history surpasses in grace and loveliness that of 
Jane Grey. She always preferred a modest and studious retirement to 
the splendid amusements of a court. At fifteen she was studying He- 
brew; while in Greek and Latin, French and Italian, she was able to 
converse and correspond with the most learned men 01 the age. At the 
time of her inarriage, no one informed her of the plot to make her 
queen, and when the Council of Nobles announced to her Edward's 
death, and her own accession to the crown, she fell into a dead swoon 
from grief and terror. Submitting herself at length to her father's com- 
mand, she nerved herself to act with justice and decision, and to thwart, 
if possible, the ambitious schemes of her father-in-law. When the short 
farce of her queenship was over, she expressed a joyful sense of relief, 
and begged that she might go home to her studies. She endured her 
imprisonment in the Tower with gentleness and patience, and tried to 
in.spire courage in her husband. They were executed in February, 15.54. 

8. Drake was born in Devonshire about 1540. After various bucca- 
neei^ng enterprises against the Spanish, West Indian, and American 
settlements, he conducted Ave vessels to the Pacific, and obtained im- 
mense treasures on the coast of Chili and Peru. He afterwards explored 
the western shores of North America, wintered near San Francisco, 
crossed the Pacific to the Moluccas, and returned by the Cape of Good 
Hope. Queen Elizabeth knighted him as a reward for this daring cruise, 
and dined with him on board his ship, which she ordered to be pre- 
served as a nronument. It must be confessed that most of Drake's en- 
terprises were ])iratical, as they were executed when the governments 
of Spain and England were at peace. He had, however, his part in 
open warfare, and contributed largely to the defeat of the Armada. 

9 Raleigh also was a native of Devonshire. After studying at Ox- 
ford he served five years in France in aid of the Huguenots, and after- 
wards against rebels" in Ireland. He is said to have gained the favor of 
Queen Elizabeth liy flinging his velvet cloak upon a muddy place in 
the path by which she was walking from her barge to her palace. In 
1584, he received from her a patent authoi-izing him to colonize and 
govern any territories he might acquire beyond the seas. His two at- 
tempts on Roanoke Island failed; but he is said to have introduced the 
potato and tobacco into Europe from, the New World. 



I 



CHAPTER V. 



RISE ()P~ THE DUTCH REPUBLIC. 

"E have seen that the seventeen 
duchies, counties, and baronies, 
known collectively as the Nether- 
lands, -'^ or Low Countries, had 
all become subject to the French 
dukes of Burgundy {§§409-413). 
On the death of Charles the Bold, 
in 1477, Burgundy was reiinnexed 
to France, but the Netherlands, 
by the marriage of his daughter 
Alary to Maximilian, were trans- 
ferred to the House of Austria. 
No part of Europe was so fertile 
and prosperous as these Low 
Countries; none had so many 
thriving cities or such intelligent 
and industrious people. Their 
silks, velvets, woolen cloth, and 
fine armor were celebrated 
Though ruled by one sovereign, each 
province had its owm government, and their representa- 
tives were only now and then called together in the "States 
General " when Charles or Philip wanted money. 




Flemish Costume, 
XVII. Century. 



throughout Europe. 



■■■These were the diickic's of Brabant, Limburg, Luxemburg, and 
(Judders; the inargravate of Antwerp ; the comitu's of Artois, Flanders, 
Hainauh, Namur, Zutphen, Holland, and Zealand ; and the baronies 
of Mechlin, Utrecht, Friesland, Overyssel, and ("ironingen. 

Name these countries and their chief cities from Map No. 11. 
(298; 



THE PRINCE OF ORANGE. 299 

513. Charles V. had been born in Ghent,' and was sup- 
posed to favor his Flemish subjects, to the great discontent 
of the Spaniards. But he constantly violated the chartered 
rights of the j^rovinces which he had sworn to maintain. 
By eleven successive edicts, and by the establishment of 
the Inquisition, Charles tried to stop the Reformation in 
the Netherlands, and many of his best subjects sealed their 
faith with their blood. 

514. Philip II. (§470) was a still more cruel bigot.- He 
declared that he would lose a hundred thousand lives 
rather than see any of his dominions severed from the 
ancient church. On his departure for Spain, 

Philip entrusted the regency of the Netherlands ' '^^^ 

to his half-sister, the Duchess of Parma. Among her 
councilors was William, Prince of Orange,'* then chiefly 
renowned for his vast wealth and illustrious descent, but 
soon to win a nobler fame by his self-denying patriotism. 

515. Philip's stern order of "death to heretics," led 
many thousands to seek safety in other lands ( ^ 506 ). 
The Prince of Orange, as governor of Holland and Zea- 
land, refused to permit the burning of his countrymen, 
and many nobles and citizens leagued themselves to demand 
a retraction of the hated edicts. The duchess was alarmed, 
but her council branded the petitioners as a " pack of 
beggars." The name was adopted by the nobles them- 
selves at a banquet, with shouts of merriment r^d cries 
of "Long live the Beggars!" 

516. Thousands of the people now be^^an to meet in 
excited crowds, which broke into cathed'^als, shattered the 
beautiful stained glass of their windows, and dashed the 
images to the ground. In a battle near Ant- 
werp, 1800 "Beggars" were slain. Philip now '^ ^ 
sent the Duke of Alva, a pitiless monster, to put down 
resistance with fire and sword. Defying all the laws, he 
organized a "Council of Aood" in his own house, and 



300 MODERN HISTORY. 



summoned before it the chief opponents of the edicts. The 
Prince of Orange, now in Germany, refused to appear. 
Counts Egmont and Horn were tried and beheaded in the 
great square at Brussels, A. D. 1568. A decree of the 
Inquisition condemned the entire population of the Nether- 
lands, with a few special exceptions, to death ! Of course 
this was not literally executed, but it removed the protec- 
tion of law from all; and Alva boasted of 18,000 lives 
destroyed during his regency of six years. 

517. Industry ceased; towns were deserted; all the 
wealthy who could leave fled beyond the sea; many bold 
spirits took to privateering, and made the name of "Sea 
Beggars" a terror to Spanish sailors. Their prizes were 
at first carried into English ports; but, after four years, 
Queen Elizabeth forbade this for fear of involving herself 
in a war with Spain. The Sea Beggars then seized Briel, 
the capital of Zealand, and made it the beginning of a 
new Republic. The four provinces of Holland, Zealand, 

Friesland, and Utrecht declared the Prince 

July 15, 1572. r t~^ 1-1 r 1 , , 1111 ■> !■ 

of Orange their lawtul "stadtholder, or lieu- 
tenant, during the absence of Philip II. In 1573, Alva 
was succeeded by Requesens, a just man, who at least 
put a stop to indiscriminate murders. But the war still 
went on. 

518. The prince lost several battles, and, in 1574, his 
brother, Louis of Nassau, was slain near Nimeguen. But 
the spirit of the whole people was aroused, and their 
constancy was proved by their heroic defense of Haarlem, 
Alkmaar, and Leyden, against the besieging forces of the 
Spaniards. Leyden was relieved only by cutting the dykes 

and letting the sea overflow the surrounding 

"^ ' '"^ country, that the fleet of the prince might 

approach its walls. At last the starving citizens were fed, 

and then all went in procession to the cathedral to thank 

God for His great deliverance. 



I 



THE DUTCH REPUBLIC. 301 

■ 519. The death of Requesens, in 1576, was followed by 
new horrors; for his unpaid soldiery were set loose upon 
the cities, plundering, destroying, and murdering at their 
will. In Antwerp alone 1,000 houses were burned, and 
8,000 people were killed. Under this distress, the Prince 
of Orange persuaded all the provinces to unite themselves 
in the Pacification of Ghent, and afterwards in the still 
closer Union of Brussels. But, unhappily, the different 
parties could not agree; the union was dissolved, and the 
seventeen provinces were never reunited until 18 14. The 
prince, however, secured a permanent union of the seven 
northern states, under the name of the United Netherlands. 
Holland far excelled the others in power and wealth, and 
the whole confederation is commonly called the Dutch 
Republic. 

520. John of Austria, the hero of Lepanto (§561), was 
now intrusted, by Philip, with the government of the 
Netherlands. He gained a great victory at Gemblours, 
which almost annihilated the army of the States; but he 
died two years later, and was succeeded by Alexander of 
Parma, son of the former regent, and the greatest general 
of his time. In 1581, the thirteen Flemish and northern 
provinces formally cast off their allegiance to Philip II., 
and conferred their sovereignty upon the Duke of Anjou, 
brother of the French king, who solemnly swore to defend 
and maintain their liberties according to the charters. 
But he was a traitor at heart, and, upon his giving up 
Antwerp to be plundered by his soldiers, he was driven 
into France. 

521. In 1584, the Prince of Orange was murdered in 
his own house by a hired agent of Philip of Spain. This 
foul crime seemed a death-blow to the liberties of the 
Netherlands; for the wisdom, firmness, and incorruptible 
fidelity of the prince had been their only sure dependence 
amid dissensions within and dangers from without. But 



30 2 MODERN HISTORY. 

the blow aroused the States to the necessity of united 
action; and, on the very day of the murder, the represent- 
atives of Holland declared their resolution "to maintain 
the good cause, with God's help, to the uttermost, without 
sparing gold or blood." 

522. The year following the prince's death was sadly 
marked by the fall of Antwerp. It had bravely withstood 
thirteen months' siege by Alexander of Parma; when it was 
taken, tlie ruined homes of its citizens supplied materials 
for a new fortress, while grass grew and cattle fed in 
streets which had been crowded with traders from all 
parts of the world. Antwerp had succeeded Florence 
(§369) as the banking center of Europe; this distinction 
now passed to London, whither great numbers of its bankers 
and merchants removed. 

523. In 1596, both England and France became allies 
of the States against Spain. Cadiz was taken and plun- 
dered, and many treasure-laden vessels from the Spanish 
colonies became the prizes of the Sea Beggars. The war 
was ended by the Peace of Vervins in May, 1598. A few 
days later, the ten southern provinces of the Netherlands 
were settled upon Philip's daughter Isabella and her hus- 
band; and, for fear that either should exceed the other in 
rank, both were styled ^^ the Archdukes.'' 

524. The eldest son of the Prince of Orange was a 
prisoner in Spain. The second son, Maurice of Nassau, 
succeeded to the command of the States' forces, and, as 
he grew to manhood, developed extraordinary talents for 
war. He gained the battle of Turnhout by the then novel 
device of arming his cavalry with pistols. At length, in 
1609, an honorable truce closed forty years' war with 
Spain, and secured to the Dutch Republic not only its 
undisputed territory at home, but the Spice Islands, and 
freedom of trade with both Indies. Not until forty years 
later, however, did Spain acknowledge its independence. 



DEATH OF PHILIP IL 303 

525. In 1598, Philip died. His 42 years' reign had 
begun in unexampled prosperity, and ended in disgrace. 
In 1580 he had conquered Portugal and added all her 
rich possessions in Asia and America (§§435, 436) to his 
own dominions, which now included one third of all the 
land on the globe. But he had ruined his realms by his 
stupid tyranny; and, with all the gold and diamonds of the 
New World at his disposal, he died a bankrupt. His son, 
Philip III., was a dull bigot, and though his dominion 
was still the greatest in Europe, it ceased to have a con- 
trolling part in the world's affairs. 

The United Netherlands were already the chief maritime 
nation in the world. Their sailors were the boldest and 
most skillful, their ships the best modeled; and a Dutch 
Indiaman would sail round the globe while a Spaniard or 
Portuguese was making only the outward passage to Asia. 
Naturally, therefore, the rich commerce with the Indies 
fell into the hands of the Dutch. They had a thousand 
vessels engaged in the Baltic trade, and nearly as many 
more in fisheries. Meanwhile the industry of farmers and 
manufacturers had made the Seven States the most pros- 
perous and productive portion of the European continent. 

Point out, on Map No. 11, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Leyden, 
Amsterdam. The seven (northern) United Netherlands. The ten 
(southern) Spanish Netherlands. 

Read Motley's "Rise of the Dutch Republic" and "History of 
the United Netherlands." 

NOTES. 

1. "As early as the fourteentli century, the a«e of the Arteveldes, 
Froissart estimated the number of fighting men whom Ghent could 
bring into the field at «U,UUU. The city, by itsjurisdiction over many large 
but subor.linate towus, disposed of more than its own immediate pop- 
ulation, which has been reckoned as high as 200,OUO. Its streets and 
squares were spacious and elegant; its churches and other public build- 
ings, numerous and splendid. The sumptuous church of St. Bayon, where 
Charles V. hart been baptized, the ancient castle whither Baldwin Bras 
de Fer had brought the daughter of Charles the Bold; the well-known 
belfry, where swiuig the famous Roland, whose iron tongue had called 
the citizens, generation after generation, to arms, were all conspicuous 
In the city and celebrated in the land. Especially the great bell was 



304 MODERN HISTORY. 



the object of the burghers' aflfection, and, generally, of the sovereign's 
hatred; while to all it seemed a living historical personage, endowed 
with the human powers and passions which it had so long directed and 
inflamed."— il/o<?e^'s Rlne of the Dutch Jie])ublic, I. 

In 1540, for its just resistance to an enonnous tax, Charles "annulled 
all the charters, privileges, and laws" of his native city; confiscated all 
its public jiroperty, sentenced the great bell Roland to removal, and re- 
(iuirc(i srvcral hundreds of the most noted citizens, as representing the 
rest, to l»og his pardon on their knees, and with halters around their 
necks, for their "disloyalty, disobedience, etc." He made "a fine show 
of benignity" in granting this pardon; but his sentence was meant for 
the death-blow of the liberties of all the Netherlands. The northern 
provinces, after eighty years' heroic struggle, wrested their freedom from 
his successors; but the prosperity of Ghent, Antwerp, and most of the 
cities of the ten southern provinces was efTectuallj' destroyed. 

2. " Thus the provinces had received a new master. A man of for- 
eign birth and breeding, not speaking a word of their language, nor of 
any language which the mass of the inhabitants understood, was now 
placed in suiireme authority over them, because he represented, through 
the females, the 'good' Philip of Burgundy, wlio, a century before, had 
Itossessed himself by inheritance, purchase, force, or fraud, of the sov- 
ereignty of most of those provinces." Pliilip possessed nothing of his 
father's gift of popularity. "He was disagreea)jle to the Italians, detest- 
able to the Flemings, odious to the Germans." He was "sluggish in 
character, deficient in martial enterprise, as timid of temperament as he 
was fragile and sickly of frame." " His mental capacity was likewise 
not very much esteemed. His talents were, in truth, very much below 
mediocrity. His mind was incredibly small. . . . He was slow in 
deciding, slower in communicating his decisions. He took refuge in a 
cloud of words, sometimes to conceal his meaning, oftener to conceal the 
absence of any meaning, thus mystifying, not only others, but himself. 

" His education hail been but meager. In an age when all kings and 
noblemen iios^essed many languages, he spoke not a word of any 
tongue but Spanish. . . . The gay, babbling, energetic, noisy life of 
Flanders and Brabant was detestable to him. The loquacity of the 
Netbeiianders was a continual reproach upon his taciturnity. His ed- 
ucatinn bad imbued him, too, with the antiquated international hatred 
of S|Kininid and Fleming. . . . Of the 150 persons who composed his 
ciiurt at Brussels, nine tenths were Spaniards. Thus it is obvious how 
soon he disregarded bis father's precept and practice in this respect, 
and began to lay the foundation of that renewed hatred to Spaniards, 
which was soon to become so intense, exuberant, and fatal throughout 
every class of Netherlanders."— Jifo^tey, I. 

3. "The Nassau family first emerges into distinct existence in the 
middle of the eleventh century. It divides itself into two great branches. 
Tlie elder remained in Germany, ascended the imperial throne in the 
person of Adolph of Nassau, and gave to the country many electors, 
l)ivb<)|)s, and generals. The younger and more illustrious branch trans- 
planted itself to the Netherlands, where it attained to great power and 
large possessions. The ancestors of William, as Dukes of Gueldres, had 
begun to exercise sovcreiiinty in the provinces four centuries before the 
advent of the House of Burgundy. That overshadowing family after- 
wards numbered the Netherland Nassaus among its most staunch and 
|)()wei-fal aiUieri'nts. Engelbert the Second was distinguished in the 
turbulent councils and liattle-fields of Charles the Bold, and was after- 
wards the unwavering supiiorter of Maximilian." His nephew Henry, 
"received the family possessions and titles in Lu.xembourg, Brabant, 
Flanders, and Holland, and distinguished himself in the service of the 
Burgundo-Austrian House. The confidential friend of Charles V , whose 
governor he had been in that emi)eror"s boyhood, he was ever his most 
etflcient and reliable adherent. It was lie whose influence placed the- 
inijjerial crown on the head of Charles." He married a sister of Prince 
Philibert of Orange, and his son Ren6 succeeded Philibert. "The little 
principality of Orange, so pleasantly situated between Provence and 
Dauphiny, but in such dangerous proximity to the ' Babylonian captivity ' 
of the Popes at Avignon (§3t>7), tbus passed to the family of Nassau. 
The title was of bigli antiquity. Already iri the reign of Charlemagne, 



MAP No. XI. 



THE NETHERLANDS. 



The Netherlands subject to Charlemagne A. D. 785. 
Divided into 17 fiefs under great vassals . . 800-900. 

Reunited under Dulce Philip of Burgundy . • i437- 

Become subject to House of Austria by marriage 

of Maximilian with Mary of Burgundy . i477- 
Independence of the Seven Northern Provinces: 1594. 

C Zealand, Utrecht, Overyssel, ^ 

Holland, Guelders, Friesland. V 

Groningen, ) 

The Spanish Netherlands: 



\ 



r Artois, Namur, Brabant, Liege, ^ 

< Flanders, Luxemburg, Mechlin Hainault, V 
(. Limburg, Antwerp, J 

Conferred upon the Archdukes (p. 228) . . 1598. 

Become "Austrian Netherlands" upon Isabella's 

death 1633. 

Conquered, or liberated, by French revolutionists 1794, '9 
Join the Northern Provinces in Kingdom of the 

Netherlands . . . . . .1815. 

Separate from Holland and form Kingdom of 

Belgium 1830. 



-1 \ 

SPANISH NETHERLANDS JST O H T H S\E A 

and 
THE UNITED PROVINCES 

in the 
Seventeenth Century. 



Scale of Miles. 




NOTES. 305 

Gnillaume an Court Nez, or ""William with the Short Nose," had de- 
fended the little town of Orange against the Saracens. The interest and 
authority acquired in the demesnes thus preserved by his valor became 
extensive, and in process of time hereditary in his race. The principality 
became an absolute and free sovereignty. ... In l.>i4. Prince Ren6 died 
at the emperor's feet in the trenches of St. Dizier (Hti7i. He left all 
his titles and estates to his cousin, William of Nassau, who thus, at the 
age of 11 years, became William the Ninth of Orange. For this child, 
whom the future was to summon to such high destinies and such he- 
roic sacrifices, the past and present seemed to have gathered riches and 
power together from many sources." 

"At a very early age he came, as a page, into the emperor's family. 
Charles recognized, with his customary quickness, the remarkable char- 
acter of tlie boy. At fifteen, William was the intimate, almost confi- 
dential, friend of the emperor, who prided himself, above all other gifts, 
on liis power of reading and of using men. There seemed to be no se- 
crets which the emperor held too high for the comprehension or dis- 
cretion of his page. His perceptive and reflective faculties, naturally 
of remarkable keenness and depth, thus acquired a precocious and ex- 
traordinary development. He was brought up behind the curtain of 
that great stage where the world's dramas were daily enacted. Care- 
fully to observe men's actions, and silently to ponder upon their mo- 
tives, was the favorite occupation of the prince during his apprentice- 
ship at court. As he advanced to man's estate, he was selected by the 
emperor for the highest duties. ... It was the Prince's shoulder 
upon which the emperor leaned at the abdication (§470); the prince's 
hand which bore the imperial insignia of the discrowned monarch to 
Ferdinand at Augsburg. With these duties his relations with Charles 
were ended, and those with Philip begun. He was the secret negotia- 
tor of the preliminary arrangement with France, soon afterwards con- 
firmed by the triumphant treaty of April, 1559. . . . He was one of 
the hostages selected by Henry for the due execution of the treaty, and, 
wliile in France, made that remarkable discovery which was to color 
his life. While hunting with the king in the forest of Vlncennes, the 
prince and Henry found themselves alone together and separated from 
the rest of the company. The French monarch's mind was full of the 
great scheme which had just secretly been formed between Philip and 
himself, to extirpate Protestantism by a general extirpation of Protest- 
ants. . . . This conspiracy of the two kings against their subjects was 
the matter nearest tlie hearts of both. The Duke of Alva, a fellow ho.st- 
age with William of Orange, was the plenipotentiary to conduct this 
more important arrangement. The French monarch, somewhat impru- 
dently imagining that the prince was also a party to the plot, opened 
the whole subject to him without reserve. . . . The prince, although 
horror-struck and indignant at the royal revelations, held his peace 
and kept his countenance. . . . William of Orange earned the sur- 
name of 'the Silent,' from the manner in which he received these coni- 
munications of Henry, without revealing to the monarch, by word or 
look, this enormous blunder which he had committed. His purpose 
was fixed from that hour. . . . Although having as yet no spark of 
religious symijathy for the reformers, he could not, he said, but feel 
Compassion for so many virtuous men and women thus devoted to 
massacie, and he determined to .•<ave them if he could. ... In one 
of his last interviews with .Philip, the king had given him the names 
of .several 'excellent persons suspected of the new religion,' and had 
commanded him to have them put to death. This, laowever, he not 
only omitted to do, but, on the contrary, gave them warning, so that 
they might effect their escape, 'thinking it more necessary to obey God 
than man.' . . . Yet we are not to regard William of Orange, thus on 
the threshold of his great career, by the light diffused from a some 
what later period. He was disposed for an easy, joyous, luxurious, 
princely life. . . . His house, the splendid Nassau palace of Brussels, 
was ever open. He entertained for the monarch, who was, or Imag- 
ined himself, too poor to di.scharge his own duties in this respect, but 
he entertained, at his own expense. Twenty-four noblemen, and eight- 
een pages of gentle birth officiated regularly in his family. . . . Such, 
then, at the beginning of 1560, was William of Orange, a generous, 
stately, magnificent, powerful grandee."— -Td. I, 233-245. 
Hist.-20. 



1 



CHAPTER VI. 




English Costumes, XVII 
Century. 



THE STUARTS IN ENGLAND. 

PON the death of Ehzabeth (§ 510) 
the crowns of England and Scot- 
land were united in James Stuart, 
a great grandson of Henry VII. 
(see Table, p. 223), though the 
two countries had still their sepa- 
rate parliaments. James I. (A. D. 
1603- 1625) brought a new idea 
of royalty into England, namely, 
that of his "divine right" as the 
"Lord's Anointed" to overrule all 
laws. He told the House of Com- 
mons that it existed by the gracious 
l)ermission of his ancestors, and 
would continue to exist only so 
long as it suited him. The king's 
slovenly, slouching person and un- 
dignified manners made a curious 
contrast to these high pretensions. 



527. James hated the Puritans, now a large party in the j 
English Church, who desired some further reforms in the 
ritual; and he offended them by his "Book of Sports," in 
which he recommended public amusements on the Lord's | 
day. Finding that they could expect no favor, nor even 
justice at home, several congregations, now deciding to 
[306) 



i 



REIGN OF JAMES 1. 307 

quit the established Church, took refuge in Holland. We 
owe to King James, however, the accepted 
Protestant version of the Bible, ^ which was 
made by a commission of learned men at his command. 

528. Several consi)iracies disturbed the early years of 
this reign. One was the " Gunpowder Plot" of the discon- 
tented Romanists, to blow up the Parliament houses when 
all the members were assembled to hear the king's speech. 
It was detected in time, and Guy Fawkes, a paid agent 
of the conspirators, was put to death. In another and less 
atrocious plot, .Sir Walter Raleigh was accused of having 
part. He was thrown into the Tower, where he beguiled 
twelve gloomy years of imprisonment by writing his His- 
tory of the World. Then, without removing his sentence, 
the king sent him to lead a perilous attack upon Guiana, 
where Raleigh lost his son and all his fortune, and re- 
turned only to lay his head upon the block. " 'Tis a 
sharp medicine," said he, with a smile, as he passed his 
finger along the executioner's axe, "but it is a cure for 

! all ills." 

529. The reign of James is more honorably noted as an 
era of colonization. Thousands of Scottish settlers estab- 

-. lished their linen-making and other industries in the north 

! of Ireland, which had been laid waste by Tyrone's Rebel- 

. lion. The East India Company, which had received its 

[ first charter from Elizabeth, set up a factory at Surat, in 

Hindustan. The earliest English town within the present 

limits of the United States bore the king's 

; name. At first idle adventurers flocked to " ' °''' 

\\ Jamestown, expecting to find gold without labor, and they 

were nearly cut off by famine ; but the energy and good 

I sense of Captain John Smith brought about a better state 

{ of affairs. A different sort of adventurers landed, in 1620, 

01 the sandy coast of Plymouth Bay. They were the 

refugees from Holland (§527), who had now resolved 



3oS MODERN HISTORY. 



to found a new state, where they could bring up their 
children in the language and customs of their native land, 
while enjoying a freedom of worship which England would 
not afford. _ h 

530. Europe was now trembling with the first shock 
of the Thirty Years' War. Frederic, elector-palatine, had 
married the English princess, Elizabeth, and looked to her 
father for aid in his resistance to the Austrian power 
(§§ 564, 566). But James seemed not even to understand 
the policy of his great predecessor, which made England 
the head of Protestant interests in Europe. He allowed 
Frederic to be driven, not only from his new kingdom of 
Bohemia, but from the home of his fathers ; and Elizabeth, 
with her children, had to beg for shelter at foreign courts. 
James, meanwhile, was sacrificing his own dignity and the 
interests of his people for the sake of a Spanish marriage- 
for his son, which, after all, was refused him. Charles 
married a Bourbon princess, Henrietta Maria, sister of 

Louis xni. 

531. Charles I. (A. D. 1625- 1649) began his reign, 
without money, on the eve of war with Spain. The Com- j 
mons distrusted him, and would grant supplies only for a . 
year at a time. Charles thereupon dismissed them, and 
tried to raise money by forced loans and arbitrary taxes; , 
i)ut these unlawful proceedings offended the people more 
than they helped the king. His war resulted in failure; 
but he was soon led by his favorite Buckingham to aid 
the Huguenots of Rochelle against the armies of Louis 
XHL This, too, failed, and Buckingham was assassinated 
while preparing for a new attempt. 

532. In his domestic relations, Charles was worthy of all 
respect; but, in his acts as a king, he added his father's 
arbitrary temper to that falsity of character which had cost 
his grandmother her crown and her life (§ 505). The 
Parliament of 1628 demanded his assent to a Petition of 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 



309 



Rights, before it Avould take up the question of supplies. 
The king signed this "second great charter of EngUsh 
Freedom" (§ 383), but he violated it almost as soon as 
thp Parliament had dispersed, by levying "ship-money" 
on his own authority. 

533' Joh" Hampden;' a wealthy gentleman who had been 
twice a member of Parliament, refused to pay this tax, that 
he might bring the matter to a test before the courts. 
Seven of the twelve judges decided against him, because 
they dared not displease the king ; but his bold resistance 
was an example and encouragement to the nation. 

534. Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, who had at 
first resisted the king's demands, deserted the cause of 
the people and became a chief agent in oppression. Arch- 
bishop Laud carried the same spirit into matters of relig- 
ion, by restoring some ancient usages in worship which 
the mass of the nation regarded as idolatrous. The king 

\ wished to impose the same ritual upon Scotland, but here 
he met a sturdy resistance. The famous Cove- 
nant, signed partly with the blood of the writers, • ' 3 ■ 
bound the whole Scottish people to oppose all "errors and 
corruptions" contrary to the reformed faith. 

535. In 1640, an army of the "Covenanters" invaded 
England, and threatened York, where the king was resid- 
ing. Charles was now compelled to summon the "Long 
Parliament," so called because it continued its sessions 
thirteen years. Before it would grant money, it impeached 
Strafford and Laud, abolished the Courts of Star Chamber 
and High Commission, which had become infamously cor- 
rupt, and ordered to trial all the tools of the king's oppres- 
sions. Strafford was beheaded; and Laud, after foiir years' 
imprisonment, suffered the same fate. 

536. A fierce rebellion broke out in Ireland, in October, 
1641. The Scotch colonists (§ 529) were massacred or 



3IO 



MODERN HISTORY. 



driven from their homes, and only Dublin remained subject 
to the English. A rash attempt of the king to arrest five 
members of Parliament now plunged England into civil 
war. London and the great cities, with the Puritans, were 
generally on the side of Parliament; while the nobles and 
clergy and all the young cavaliers, who loved a gay life 
and hated Puritan strictness, took part with the king. 

537. Charles' cavalry was led by his nephew. Prince 
Rupert, son of that German elector who had tried to be 
king of Bohemia. In 1644, Parliament allied itself with 
the Scots, who sent an army to besiege York. In a furi- 
ous battle on Marston Moor, Prince Rupert and the royal 
forces were defeated, and the next year Fairfax and Crom- 
well,'* the parliamentary generals, gained a still more de- 
cisive victory over the king's army at Naseby. 

538. Charles at length took refuge with the Scots, but 
he refused to sign the Covenant, and was therefore sur- 
rendered to the English Parliament. He was treated with 
respect, but all attempts at agreement came to naught. 
Charles would abate nothing of his "divine rights," while 
his opponents stood firmly for the liberties of the people. 
At length a court of one hundred and fifty judges was 
appointed to try Charles Stuart for treason in having 
levied war against the Parliament. He was condemned, 
and, notwithstanding the protest of the Scots, was beheaded 
at Whitehall, January 30, 1649. 

539. The Commonwealth,^ — The English Commons 
proceeded to abolish monarchy and all titles of nobility, 
and to proclaim the Commonwealth (A. D. 1649- 1660). 
The Scots crowned Charles the Second as their king, upon 
his signing the Covenant and declaring himself humbled 
and grieved in spirit for the sins of his father. Charles 
afterwards exacted a bitter revenge for the hypocrisy he 
had been made to practice. Cromwell and his "Ironsides" 
first subdued the Irish rebellion (§ 536), then gained a 






CROMWELL, PROTECTOR. 3IT 



great victory over the Scots at Dunbar and captured Edin- 
burgh and Leith. Charles seized the opportunity to slip 
into England, hoping that many royalists would join him, 
but he was disappointed, and so thoroughly de- 
feated at Worcester that he had to take refuge ' " ' "^' 
beyond the sea; while Scotland, Ireland, and the American 
colonies submitted to the Commonwealth. 

540. Parliament soon pro\oked a war with the neigh- 
boring republic of Holland, England's maritime rival. 
The English admiral P>lake and the Dutch A^an Tromp 
fought many obstinate battles, after one of which Van 
Tromp tied a broom to his masthead and sailed triumph- 
antly up and down the channel, showing his determina- 
tion to sweep the English from the seas. The war closed, 
however, ■ with reverses to the Dutch, who consented to 
lower their flags whenever they met an English vessel. 

541. The Long Parliament had now become an in- 
sufferable despotism, but there was no power that could 
legally dissolve it. Cromwell undertook to do this by 
military force. Repairing to Westminster with a guard 
of soldiers, he reproached the members with their tyranny, 
ambition, and robbery of the people, and ended by crying 
out: "For shame! Cet you gone! Give place to hon- 
ester men ! You are no longer a ])arliament ! " His sol- 
diers cleared the hall and locked the doors. He then 
summoned a new Parliament, in which, for the 

first time, the representatives of Scotland and 
Ireland sat with those of England. This Parliament con- 
ferred sovereign power upon Cromwell, with the title of 
Lord Protector for life. 

542. England now regained the respect which she had 
lost under the vacillating rule of the Stuarts. Cromwell 
demanded justice for the persecuted Vaudois as a condi- 
tion of his alliance with France against Spain. From the 
latter he wrested the rich island of Jamaica, and the im- 



312- MODERN HISTORY. 



portant harbor and fortress of Dunkirk. But Cromwell 
bitterly felt that his power was usurped and despotic. 
Some of his acts were more arbitrary than those for which 
Charles was beheaded. He, too, had levied taxes without 
consent of Parliament, and had imprisoned lawyers who 
appeared in defense of the victims. 

543. Assassins, paid by Charles II., constantly dogged 
his steps ; the reproaches of his conscience, deepened, it 
is said, by those of his dying daughter, harassed his mind. 
A slow fever consumed him, and he died, on the anni- 
versary of his great victories of Dunbar and Worcester, 
September 3, 1658. His son Richard, though acknowl- 
edged as Protector, found himself unequal to the office, 
and resigned his place. No one was great enough, though 
several men were quite willing, to be intrusted with the 
government, and the dread of anarchy led the nation to 
welcome Charles H. as their king. 

544. The Restoration, — Charles H. (A. D. 1660- 
1685) entered London amid the clang of bells, the blaze 
of bonfires, and the shouts of a rejoicing people. He 
began his reign with amnesty to all political offenders, 
except a few who had been actively concerned in his 
father's death. The church was restored to the authority 
it had enjoyed under James I., and 2,000 dissenting min- 
isters were expelled from their parishes. Greater severi- 
ties were inflicted upon the Scots, who chose to meet for 
worship in lonely recesses of mountain and moor, rather 
than be false to their covenant. These congregations 
were often ridden down by the king's troopers, and men, 
women, and children were put to the sword. 

545. In 1664, a new war broke out with the Dutch, 
who lost their American province between the Hudson 
and Delaware rivers. It was conferred on the king's 
brother, James, duke of York, and the northern part has 
ever since borne his title. During this war two tjreat 



REIGN OF CHARLES II. 513 



calamities visited London — the Plague, in 1665, which de- 
stroyed 100,000 lives, and the great fire, in 1666, which 
consumed 13,000 dwellings and 90 churches. 

546. Charles, by this time, had disgusted his best friends 
by the shameful licentiousness of his court. He dismissed 
his faithful chancellor. Lord Clarendon, who reproved his 
vices, and allowed his government to fall into the hands 
of unscrupulous politicians. He married a Portuguese prin- 
cess, Catharine of Braganza; but he treated her with rude 
neglect, and even allowed her to be insulted by his court- 
iers. He sold Dunkirk to the French to raise money for 
his idle pleasures, and actually accepted a pension from 
Louis XIV., to betray the religion and the independence 
of England. He was, however, compelled by Parliament 
to join in the Triple Alliance (i^ 622) to restrain the aggres- 
sions of his too-powerful cousin. 

547. The duke of York, about this time, declared him- 
self a Romanist, and the king was, secretly, of the same 
mind, so far as he had any religion at all. The people, 
recalling the dangers of a hundred years before (§§ 505- 
508), were ready to believe the false stories of 

one Titus Gates, who told of a "popish plot"' to ' ' ' ' '' ' 
kill the king and all Protestants, burn London, and crown 
the duke of York. The excitement became so great, and 
such rewards were offered for further evidence, that every 
day brought forth a swarm of new stories, each more atro- 
cious than the last. But, when the aged and estimable 
Lord Stafford was actually beheaded for supposed com- 
plicity in the "plot," remorse and grief took the place of 
credulity, and Gates was at last punished as he deserved. 

548. The "Rye-House Plot," A. D. 1683, was a real 
scheme to kill the king and his brother on their way to the 
Newmarket races. Its authors were common ruffians, who 
were easily detected and punished. Six nobles and gentle- 
men were at the same time planning some change in the 



314 MODERN HTSTORY. 



government, though their designs did not probably include 
either treason or murder. One was the duke of Mon- 
mouth, a son of the king and a low-born woman; another 
was Algernon Sidney, a noble-minded republican by theory, 
who had opposed the absolute power of Cromwell as well 
as that of Charles. Monmouth ran away, but was after- 
wards pardoned and received at court ; Sidney and Lord 
Rnssell were tried, condemned, and beheaded on unproven 
charges of having had part in the Rye-Honse Plot. 

549. The names of "Whig" and "Tory" now first 
appeared in England, the former applied to the party 
which stood for the rights of the people ; the latter, to 
that which accepted the Stuart notion of the absolute 
authoritv of kings. To the Whigs we owe the full estab- 
lishment of the Habeas Corpus Act, entitling 

A. D. 1679. . , . , , , 

every prisoner to a speedy trial, and thus pre- 
venting arbitrary imprisonments. This guarantee of per- 
sonal freedom is found in every nation which has derived 
its ideas of law and justice from England. 

550. The reign of Charles II. was a great era in 
science. Newton^ discovered the law of gravitation ; Boyle^ 
investigated the properties of the atmosphere ; Hobbes and 
Locke discoursed of the human mind, its laws and rela- 
tions to matter. Meanw^hile, Milton,^ in blindness and pov- 
erty, was composing the greatest epic poem in the language 
— Paradise Lost. He had been secretary to Cromwell, 
and devoted his splendid talents to the service of the 
Commonwealth. He was treated with contemptuous neg- 
lect by the courtiers of Charles, but later ages know better 
how to appreciate him. John Bunyan, tinker and preacher, 
during his twelve years' imprisonment in Bedford jail, wrote 
the "Pilgrim's Progress," which has probably had more 
readers than any other English book. 

551. Charles left no son entitled to succeed him, and 
his brother James (A. U. 16S5-1688) accordingl}- became 



DETHRONEMENT OF JAMES II. 315 



king upon his death. Taking advantage of the popular 
fear of popery, the duke of Monmouth made a rash attempt 
to seize his uncle's crown. With his little army he met 
the king's forces at Sedgemoor, where he was defeated, 
made a prisoner, and condemned to the scaffold. A brutal 
revenge for this insurrection was taken by Kirke with his 
dragoons, and afterwards by Jeffreys, the drunken chief 
justice, who condemned innocent and guilty alike. 

552. The king soon took steps for the restoration of 
popery, and thrust into the Tower seven venerable bishops, 
who had ventured to remonstrate. The people had been 
patiently waiting for the king to die, that his daughter, 
who had married the Prince of Orange — great grandson 
of the liberator of the Netherlands (§§ 514-521) — might 
come to the throne. The birth of an English prince, in 
1688, disappointed this hope and hastened the Revolution. 

553. William of Orange was the leader of Protestant 
Europe against Louis XIV., as Elizabeth had been against 
Philip of Spain. The best men in England now joined in 
inviting him to come and deliver them from misrule. In 
November, 1688, he appeared with a fleet on the English 
coast, and both parties declared for him. The queen and 
her baby-son escaped to France, where the king soon 
joined them. Louis received them with kindness, main- 
tained a court for them and their needy followers, and sup- 
plied fleets and armies to enforce their claims in Ireland. 

554. Parliament conferred the crown upon William and 
Mary as joint sovereigns, and they set their seal 

to a new Bill of Rights, which established just 
relations between the people and the throne. 'I"he Scotch 
Parliament also acknowledged William and Mary, but in 
Ireland an immense majority held out for James, and 
there the deposed king landed witli a French force, and 
besieged Londonderry. The citizens bravely endured a 
three months' siege, though hundreds died in tlie streets 



3l6 MODERN HISTORY. 



from hunger and disease, and at length Ja.mes had to 
withdraw. The last decisive battle was on the River 
Boyne, Avhere both kings were present in person, and 
William was completely victorious. The last of James' ad- 
herents, in the highlands of Scotland, were destroyed in 
the Massacre of Glencoe — a wicked and needless act, for 
it occurred after their submission. 

555- Q^ieen Mary II. died in 1694, and William III. 
reigned eight years as sole monarch of the three king- 
doms. England was drawn into his wars on the continent, 
which, for the first time, burdened her with a national 
debt. By the peace of Ryswick, 1697, the king of France 
recognized William as a riglitful sovereign, and promised 
to give no more aid to the exiled Stuarts. He violated 
this engagement, however, and, on the death of James II., 
proclaimed his son as "King James III. of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland." The English nation felt itself 
insulted, and, in voting supplies for the war of the Spanish 
Succession (§ 628), Parliament begged the king never to 
make peace until Louis had atoned for this act. While 
preparing for the war, William suddenly died, March, 1702. 

556. Anne, second daughter of James II., was crowned 
at Westminster, April 23, and joined the emperor and the 
Dutch republic in a grand alliance against France and 
Spain, of which her great general, the duke of Marl- 
borough, was the moving spirit. The details of the war 
will be found in the chapter on France. In 1707, Eng- 
land and Scotland became one kingdom, under the name 
of Great Britain. Ireland kept her separate parliament 
until 1800, when the three kingdoms were united. 

557. Queen Anne's heart was, doubtless, better than 
her head, and she was easily controlled by those who 
were about her. The duchess of Marlborough ruled her 
for years with the tyranny which a strong mind sometimes 
exercises over a weak one, scolding the poor queen un- 



ERA OF QUEEN ANNE. 317 

mercifully for some little domestic arrangement, which the 
humblest woman might be allowed to make in her own 
house, but which the haughty duchess chose to manage 
herself. At last she was dismissed from court, and her 
place in the queen's favor was taken by a Mrs. Masham. 
The duke was too justly accused of prolonging the war in 
order to make himself rich with army contracts. He was 
removed from command, and soon afterward the treaty of 
Utrecht restored peace to Europe. 

558. Queen Anne left no children, and, by a special 
act of Parliament, the House of Stuart was succeeded by 
that of Hanover. Perhaps it would have consoled the 
Electress Elizabeth (§ 530) in her poverty and exile, if 
she could have foreseen that her grandson would sit upon 
the throne of Great Britain. The prevalence of French 
taste may be clearly marked in the writers of Queen 
Anne's time, who are distinguished for neatness and polish 
of style, rather than for great thoughts or energetic feel- 
ing. Pope translated Homer's Iliad, and wrote his own 
moral Essays and Epistles, in the same stiff measure and 
artificial rhymes. Addison and Steele, two charming prose- 
writers, produced the Tatler and afterwards the Spectator — 
forerunners of our literary weeklies and monthlies. 

Read Green's Short History, Chs. VIII and IX. 



HOUSES OF STUART AND HANOVER. 

James I. 
I 

Charles I. Elizabeth m Elector-Palatine. 

I I 

Charles II. James II. Mary m. Pr. of Orange. Sophia m. Elector of Hanover. 

L I I 

. Ill "I I 

Mary. Anne James P'rancis [\ 552). William III. George I. 



Notice that the mother, as well as the wife, of Willliam III. was 
an English princess, and that he was himself the third in the line of 
succession to the crown. 



3^8 



MODERN HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1 111 the oourse of two centuries, the English language had under- 
gone so many changes that Wicliffe's Bible (?391) could no longer be 
read except by scholars. The loundation for all the modern versions 
was laid by William Tyndale, an exile for his belief in the reformed 
doctrines, who, in l.'yiS," published at Antwerp his translation of the 
New Testament. Tyndale was afterwards imprisoned for heresy, and, 
In 15;>(i, was strangled and liuriit at the stake. His books were burnt 
by order of the government, but his work formed the basis of Cover- 
dale's translation of tlie whole Bible, which appeared in 1535, with the 
sinction of Henry VIII. This was followed by the "Great Bible" ot 
i:.:!!i^l51I, also sanctioned by tlie king; and by the "Bishops' Bible" of 
l.')(;s-1572, in the reign of Elizabeth. Fifty-four scholars and divines were 
emploveil upon King James's translation, and these were divided into 
six "('onipanies," four for the Old Testament and two for the New. 
Tlieir work occupied two years and nine mouths. 

In June, 1870, a Revision of King James's Version was commenced 
In- two English Companies appointed by the Convocation ot Canter- 
bury who afterwards invited two Committees in America to co-operate 
with' them. The Revised New Testament was presented to the public 
in May, ISSl. 

2. The "Spanish Marriage" scl.enie was met in England with tlie 
strongest remonstrance from Parliament and all the king's best coun- 
cillors. It was promoted, however, by the Duke of Buckingham, "a 
handsome vouiig adventurer," whom James had " raised rapidly through 
every rank of the peerage, and intrusted with the direction of English 
policy. . . . But tlie selfishness and recklessness of Buckingham were 
equal to his beauty, and the liaughty young favorite was destined to 
drag down in his fatal career the throne of the Stuarts." 

James flattered himself that if his son sliould marry a Spanish prin- 
cess, his own influence with the Spanish court would secure some pro- 
tection to his daugliter's interests in Germany, and he preferred this 
crooked policy to a direct use of his own power, in which the Commons 
would most heartily have sustained him. But Frederic, driven from Bo- 
lieinia, found a Spanish army encamped in the heart of his hereditary 
dominions, and was subsetiuently forced to take refuge in Holland. 
Prince Charles, wlio was then in Spain, urging his own suit, demanded 
Spanish interference in his sister's behalf; but was answered that there 
was an unalterable maxim of state that the King of Spain must never 
ttght against the Emperor. "If you hold to that," replied the Prince, 
"there is an end of all; " and he not unwillingly returned to England. 

3. When only three years old, Hampden was left fatherless and heir 
to one of tlie largest estates in England. Educated at Oxford, he after- 
wards studied law in London, and entered the House of Commons in 
1021. 

To the flist illegal demand of Charles I. for a loan, "Hampden replied 
that he 'could be content to lend, but feared to draw upon himself the 
curse in Magna Charta (§.S83), which shouki be read every year against 
those who infiinge it.' He was punished by so hard an imprisonment 
that he never afteiwards did look like the same man he was before." 

The levying of ship-money dated from Alfred the Great (?:i2)i and 
notes), who had required eacli maritime town to provide and maintain 
a ship for the defense of thecoast. Butthis was done only with the advice 
and consent of his "wise men." Hampdeu's Arm and reasonable resist- 
ance encouraged all true patriots; and even the Earl of Clarendon (^51(3) 
remarks in his 'History of the Civil Wars," that Hampden "grew tht 
argument of all tongues, every man inquiring who and what he was 
that durst, at his own charge, support the liberty and prosperity of tho 
kingdom." 

Hampden was mortally wounded on Chalgrove Field, 1643. 

4. Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdonshire, 1509, was edu *ted 
In Cambridge, and studied law in London. He was a cousin of Hamp- 
den. Although over forty years of age when he entered the army, "he 
never lost a battle, and his victories were always decisive." 



NOTES. 319 

With the consent of Fairfax, the commander-in-chief, Cromwell in- 
troduced a "New Model" of discipline into the Parliamentary armies. 
His first aim was to collect a body of honest, sell-respectiiig,'and God- 
fearing men, and never, probal)ly, was such another army seen. Wher- 
ever they moved, every man's house anil field were res]Jected, and pro- 
visions were honestly paid for, while the wild mai'auders wlio followed 
Prince Rupert, and many of whom had learned their trade among the 
liideous ravages of the Thirty Years' War, hurt the Iving's cause more 
by their disgraceful misconduct than they helped it by their bravery. 
* Tlie events of Cromweirs life are briefly noted in the text. His char- 
acter should be studied in I'arlyle's "Letteis and Speeches of Cromwell," 
in "Macaulay's Review of Hallam's Constitutional History of England," 
and in " Forster's Statesmen of the Commonwealth of England." 

5. Sir Isaac Newton was a farmer's son, born in Lincolnshire, Kifi'. 
In his boyhood he pi'oved his ingenuity by constructing a wind-mill, 
a water-clock, and other pieces of mechanism. While a student at Cam- 
bridge, he disc(jvered the binomial theorem in Algebra, and soon after- 
ward the ditferential calculus. In his retirement to the country during 
the Great Plague t§->l5), the fall of an apple from a tree led him into a 
train of reasoning which ended in a demonstration of the law that holds 
the planets in their orbits. It was "the germ of his greatest work, the 
'Principia,' which La Place regarded as 'pre-eminent above all other 
productions of the human intellect.'" Among his other discoveries was 
his theory explaining that which Sir John Herschel calls "the chief 
of all optical facts— the production of colors in the ordinary refraction 
of light by a prism." Read tlie accounts of Newton in the "Encyclopae- 
dia Britannica," or in " Lippincott's Biograjihical Dictionary," also "Sir 
David Brewster's Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton." 

6. Robert Boyle, a younger son of the "great Earl of Cork," was born 
at Lismoie, in Ireland, 1620. This was the year of Lord Bacon's deatli, 
and, as if destined to succeed him, Boyle is "accounted the most zealous 
and successful " of Bacon's disciples. After a liberal education, followed 
by travels in Italy, Boyle returned to England, and became one of the 
founders of the Royal Society of Science. The most noted of the prac- 
tical results of his studies and experiments was the perfecting of the 
air-pump. He is entitled to admiration as well by the noble liberality 
of his character as by his splendid contributions to science. 

7. John Milton was born in London, ICOS. After seven years at the 
University of Cambridge, he spent five years in rural quietness, study- 
ing music and the classical M-riters, and composing the most beautiful 
of his poems; "Comus," "L'^llegro," "II Penseroso," and " Lycidas." 
He afterwards tra\ eled in Italy, visited Galileo in his prison, and en- 
joyed the society of many great men. " When I was preparing," he says, 
"to pass over into Sicily and Greece, the melancholy intelligence which 
I received of the civil commotions in England made me alter my pur- 
,pose; fori thought it base to be traveling for amusement abroad while 
my fellow-citizens were fighting for liberty at home." 

Taking up his residence in London, IMilton soon afterwards married 
Mary Powell, a Indy of royalist family. Being accustomed to much 
gay "society, Mrs. Milton found her husband's house so dull that she 
soon icturiied to her early liome, and, as her lather had begun to repent 
"havintr matched his eld\'st daughter to a person so contrary in opin- 
ion," Miltt)n's letters antl attempts at reconciliation were treated with 
contempt. Finding, however, that he was about to cast her off irre- 
trievably for disobedience and desertion, the now repentant wife begged 
to be taken back. The reconciliation was perfect, and Mrs. Milton's 
kindred had reason to re;joice in it, for they soon needed a refuge un- 
der the protection of the now powerful republican. 

As "literary champion of the Commonwealth," Milton was called 
upon to answer the arguments of its opponents. His "Defense of the 
English People " cost hnii his sight. He was warned of the danger, but 
says, "I did not Ifftlance whether my duly should be preferred to ray 
eyes." Thus it was in total darkness that he composed his greatest 
poem, " Paradise Lost," and another epic, second only to it, the " Paradise 
Begaine 1." He died in 11)74. Prof. Masson's great work on the "Life 
and Times of Milton " is the highest authority on the subject. 



CHAPTER VIT. 



THE HOUSE OK AUSTRIA AM) THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. 



m^' 




M )N the abdication of Charles 
W, the Hapsbin-gs were sepa- 
rated into a Spanish and a 
(iernian branch — his brother 
Kerch nand becoming duke of 
Austria and emperor, while 
Philip reigned over Spain, 
Italy, and the Netherlands. 
Still the two branches usually 
acted in concert, and together 
continued to be the leading 
power in Kurope. 

560. The main interest of 
l-'erdinand's reign (A. 1). 1558 
-1564), and that of his son, 
centers about the wars with 
the Turks, who now exacted 
a yearly tribute from the em- 
peror, and were fighting for 
the control of the Mediter- 
ranean. In 1565, Solyman 
(§§460-467) besieged MaltaMvith an immense fleet and 
army; but the Knights of St. John defended it so bravely 
that he abandoned the enterprise and sailed away to Con- 
stantinople in a rage. Five years later, the whole island 
of Cyprus, for eighty years a possession of Venice, was 
conquered by the Turks, and all Europe was alarmed. 
(320) 




An Arqu. b i.^ier. 



MAP No. XII. 



CHIEF ENGLISH WRITERS 

OF THE COMMONWEALTH, THE RESIORATION, AND 
QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN. 



Thomas Fuller, A. D. 1608-1661 : " Worthies of England," 

etc. 
Jeremy Taylor, 1613-1667 : "The Liberty of Prophesying," 

etc. 
Abraham Cowley, 1618-1667 : Poems. 
John Milton, 1608-1674: " Paradise Lost," etc. 
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, 1608-1674: "History 

of the Rebellion," etc. 
Samuel Butler, 1612-1680: "Hudibras."^ 
Sir Thomas Browne, 1 605-1 682 : " Religio Medici," etc. 
Edmund Waller, [605-1687: Poems. 
Ralph Cudworth, 1617-1688: "True Intellectual System 

of the LTniverse," etc. 
John Bunyan, 1628-1,688: "The Pilgrim's Progress.' 
Richard Baxter, 1615-1691 : "The Saints' Rest," etc. 
John Dryden, 1631-1700: "Absalom and x-Vchitophel," etc. 
John Locke, 1632-1704: "Essay concerning Human Un- 
derstanding." 
Gilbert Burnet, 1643-1715: " History of the Reformation," 

etc. 
Joseph Addison, 1672-17T9: "Cato," "The Spectator," etc. 
Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727: "Mathematical Principles," 

"Optics," etc. 
Sir Richard Steele, 1671-1729: Comedies, " The Tatler," etc. 
Daniel DeFoe, 1661-1731 : " Robinson Crusoe," etc. 
Alexander Pope, 1688-1744: " Essay on Criticism," "The 

Dunciad," etc. 
1 Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745: "Gulliver's Tra\els," etc. 



BATTLE OF LEPANTO. 



321 



561. A fleet of 300 Spanish and Venetian vessels were 
soon assembled under the command of John of Austria, 
a half-brother of the king of Spain, and met the Turkish 
armament in the Gulf of Lepanto^(see Map 4). 

The ensuing combat was perhaps the most im- ' '^^'" 

portant naval battle of modern times; for it was the point 
where the Ottoman Empire, having reached its greatest 
power, began steadily to decline. The Turks lost 224 
ships, and 30,000 men. The great Solyman had died in 
1566, and his son Se'lim, who reigned till 1574, was weak 
and self-indulgent. 

562. Ferdinand's son and successor, Maximil'ian II. 
(A. D. 1564- 1576), was one of the best monarchs of the 
age. He gave religious liberty to his own dominions of 
Hungary and Bohemia, and steadily opposed the Jesuits, 
though his wife, a sister of Philip II. of Spain, was willingly 
ruled by them. His son, Ru'dolph II. (A. D. 1576- 161 2), 
on the contrary, expelled all Lutherans from his hereditary 
states. The laws of the empire did not permit persecution 
in Germany, but the bigotry of Rudolph prepared the way 
for the most terrible war of religion on record. He was 
a weak-minded and superstitious man; but his belief in the 
magical influences of the stars was of some use, for it led 
him to endow an observatory at Prague, where the great 
astronomers, Kepler^and Tycho Brahe,^ pursued their studies 
of the heavens. 

563. Europe was again alarmed by the progress of the 
Turks under Moham'med III., a monster who had secured 
his possession of the throne by murdering his nineteen 
brothers. In a three days' battle at Keresztes, 

fifty thousand Christians were slain ; but the war 
resulted unfavorably to the Turks, and the treaty which 
ended it dispensed with any further tribute from the em- 
perors, who were now named by their proper titles instead 
of being called "Kings of Vienna" as before. 

Hist.— 21. 



32 2 MODERN HISTORY. 



564. The long weak reign of Rudolph ended in 161 2, 
and his brother Matthi'as became emperor; but the crowns 
of Hungary and Bohemia were soon resigned to Ferdinand 
of Styria, their cousin. The Bohemians revolted against 
Ferdinand, threw his council out of the window of the 
castle at Prague, and ultimately chose Frederic, the elector- 
palatine, a son-in-law of James I. of England, to be their 
king. This was the first act in the Thirty Years' War, in 
which almost every nation in Europe was engaged, though 
Germany was the chief sufferer. 

565. The old enmity between tlie reigning houses of 
France and Austria led the former to take an important, 
though at first a secret, part in the war. Richelieu's shrewd 
management strengthened the Protestant cause, and aided 
the king of Sweden, who soon appeared as its champion. 
Wal'lenstein,' the imperial general, was the most singular 
character of his time. He believed that a great destiny 
was written for him in the stars; and his soldiers followed 
him with the l)lindest obedience and confidence, as if all 
the forces of lieaven and earth were on his side. The 
magic of his name drew about him 50,000 volunteers, 
whom he maintained, without expense to the emperor, by 
turning them loose upon the unhappy people, whose homes 
and fields they ravaged. 

566. King Frederic was not only driven from Bohemia 
by Ferdinand's troops, but lost his dominion on the Rhine, 
and ended his life in exile and poverty. Ferdinand, on the 
death of his cousin Matthias in 161 9, received the imperial 
crown. The first years of the war favored the imperialists. 
Wallenstein and his freebooters swept over the Protestant 
states, leaving a broad track of misery and desolation l^e- 
hind them. The king of Denmark, who came to the aid 
of the Protestants, was driven back even to his islands in 
the Baltic — his dominions on the mainland being occupied 
by the emperor's forces. With the aid of the king of 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 323 

Sweden, he was able, however, to relieve the fortress of 
Stralsund, before whose walls Wallenstein lost nearly half 
his army. Soon afterward the Diet insisted upon the dis- 
missal of Wallenstein for his brutal tyrannies and extor- 
tions, and Count Tilly was appointed as his successor. 

567. In 1630, Ciustavus Adolphus,^ king of Sweden, in- 
vaded Germany. His army, unlike that of Wallenstein, 
respected all the rights of the people, paying honestly for 
whatever food it required. One by one all the fortresses 
of Pomerania and Mecklenburg were either taken, or will- 
ingly surrendered to the Swedish king. The electors of 
Saxony and Brandenburg, descendants of the great leaders 
of the Reformation, were neither able to fill their place at 
the head of Protestant Germany, nor willing that any other 
should fill it. Angry because the people looked to Gus- 
tavus as their great deliverer, they refused him their aid, 
and even resisted his progress, so that he was compelled 
to leave the ancient city of Magdeburg to the vengeance of 
Count Tilly and his brutal Croats and Walloons. 

Thirty thousand citizens were massacred, and the 

entire city, excepting the cathedral, was consumed by fire. 

568. Tilly then ravaged and plundered Saxony; and the 
smoke of two hundred burning villages at length made the 
Elector willing to join his forces to those of the king* of 
Sweden. The great victory of Leipsig was the result, in 
which the imperial army was wholly dispersed or de- 
stroyed. All Germany lay open to Gustavus; he might, 
apparently, have marched to Vienna, captured the emperor, 
and received for himself the crown of the Caesars. The 
Austrian courtiers no longer laughed at the "Snow-King," 
who, at his head-quarters in Mentz, on the Rhine, was 
surrounded by a brilliant array of ambassadors and princes. 
Ferdinand was reluctantly compelled to recall Wallenstein, 
who, with haughty insolence, accepted command only on 
the condition that the entire military power of the empire 



324 MODERN HISTORY. 



should be placed in his hands, and that neither the emperor 
nor any of his family should come near the army. 

569. The last victory of Gustavus was at Lutzen, where 

Wallenstein and his trooi^s were defeated, but 
^ ' the great king was slain. The Spanish and 
Austrian governments ordered public rejoicings for his 
death, as a victory to their cause; but the rest of the 
world mourned the loss of the noblest character of the 
time. The Protestant states of Germany chose the Swed- 
ish chancellor Ox'enstiern'' to succeed his master as the 
protector of their interests, while Duke Bernhard of Weimar 
became their military chief. 

570. It was soon evident that Wallenstein meant to make 
himself king of Bohemia. Instead of bringing him to a 
just and open trial for this treason, the emperor ordered a 
secret assassination, and the foul deed was performed by 
some of Wallenstein's own officers. King Ferdinand of 
Bohemia, the emperor's eldest son, assumed chief command 
of the army, and, in the summer of 1634, inflicted a ruinous 
defeat upon the Swedes at Nordlingen. The elector of 
Saxony, and most of the other princes, soon made peace 
with Ferdinand; and the imperial armies invaded France, 
though with little success. 

571. In 1637 the emperor died, and was succeeded by 
his son Ferdinand III., a more liberal and peace-loving 
prince. Yet the war went on, and its last years were more 
hideously brutal than even its beginning. The Swedes had 
lost the perfect discipline of Gustavus Adolphus, while the 
German soldiers lived wholly by plundering the wretched 
people. Hunger was the gre'at weapon constantly em- 
ployed, each army destroying all the food it could not 
eat, for the purpose of starving its opponents; and, of 
course, women, children, and helpless men suffered more 
than the soldiers. In Bohemia alone more than a thou- 
sand castles and villages were burned. 



TREATY OF WESTPHALIA. 325 

572. At last all parties were sufficiently worn out to 
unite in an earnest effort for peace. Two congresses were 
opened at Mlinster and Osnabruck, one for the Catholic 
and one for the Protestant powers; and, after five years' 
labor of embassadors from nearly all nations of Europe, 
the treaty of Westphalia was signed. Spain 
recognized the United Netherlands after eighty '^ ■> ' + • 
years' struggle as an independent republic. The son of 
Frederic V. was restored to his electorate (§566). Relig- 
ious freedom was guaranteed to all the German states. 
Many imperial powers were now bestowed upon the Diet, 
which was hereafter to meet, at stated intervals, at Frank- 
fort, instead of attending the emperor whenever and where- 
ever he chose to call it. 

573. The Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist, except 
in name ; and 300 sovereign and separate states, each with 
its distinct coinage, constitution, and laws, existed between 
the Alps and the Baltic. One could hardly travel a day, 
even in the slow coaches of that period, without paying 
duties at several custom-houses, which marked the bound- 
aries of as many governments. The peace of Westphalia 
was an important turning point in the history of Europe — 
ending 130 years of religious strife, and marking the decline 
of the Spanish and Austrian Hapsburgs. A few years later 
saw an immense increase in the power of France. 

Find the sites of all the sieges and battles mentioned in this 
chapter. Where is Westphalia? Saxony? Brandenburg? Mecklen- 
burg? Pomerania? Bohemia? Point out the separate dominions 
of the two branches of the Hapsburgs. 

Read Schiller's "Thirty Years' War;" Dyer's History of Modern 
Europe; and, for illustration of the times, Schiller's three-fold drama 
of Wallenstein, translated by Coleridge. Also, and especially, S. R. 
Gardiner's "The Thirty Years' War," a brief sketch, which brings 
into strong relief the chief events and results. 



326 



MODERN HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. Upon the capture of Rhodes (g460), the Knights of St. John received 
from Charles V. a gift of the ishind of MaUa tor their permanent resi- 
dence, and their industry soon converted its rocky cliffs into bf)th a 
garden and a fortress. Their grand-master at this time was La Valette, 
a veteran in hisOSth year, who, in his youth, " liad witnessed the mem- 
orable siege of Rhodes, and had passed successively tli rough every post 
in the Order, from the humblest to the bislicst, which lie now occupied." 
Learning Solyman's designs, he "summoned the linights absent in for- 
eign lands, imported provisions from Sicily and Spain, drilled the native 
militia, and worked with liis own hands upon the repair of the fortifi- 
cations." Then summoning his brethren to the chapel of the convent, 
he reminded them that thev were the "forlorn hope of Christendom," 
the "chosen soldiers of the cross;" and the whole number, having par- 
taken together of the siu-.aincnt, solemnly renewed their vows. On 
the morning of May IS, l.'Xi.'), the Turkish fleet appeared— 180 ships, be- 
sides transports and 30,000 men. The castle of St. Elmo was first in- 
vested, and, after a mcmth's siege, sustained with incredible heroism, 
was reduced to a heap of ruins, in which nearly all its defenders were 
buried. The attacks upon II Borgo and its protecting castles of St. 
Michael and St. Angelo were, if possible, Jiiore determined; but the re- 
sistance was also more successful. "Mustapha ran his mines under the 
Christian defenses, until the ground was iierforated like a lioney-comb, 
and the garrison seemed to be treading on the crust of a volcano. La 
Valette countermined in his turn. The Christians, breaking into the 
galleries of the Turks, engaged them boldly undcrgrouml ; and some- 
times the mine, exploding, buried both Turk and Cliristian under a 
heap of ruins. Baffled at every point, with their ranks hourly thinned 
by disease, the Moslem troops grew sullen and dispirited." At this 
crisis, the Viceroy of Sicily arrived with a fleet and army to the aid of 
the brave defenders of the island, and Mustapha, getting his enormous 
cannon on board his galleys, sailed away for Constantinople. His 
arrival threw Solyman into a furious rage, and stamping on the 
letters that annou'n"ed it, he declared that as he had no otflcer whom 
he couhl trust, he would himself lead an expedition to Malta the next 
year and kill every man on the island. To avoid public notice, he 
caused the fleet bearing the shattered remnants of his army to come 
into port in the night — a striking contrast to the sailing of the brilliant 
armament from the Golden Horn amidst the joyous acclamations of 
the multitude. In Malta, on the other hand, the eighth of September, 
the day of the Turks' departure, is still celebrated as a most glorious 
anniver.sary. 

Read the full account in "Prescott's Philip II.," Vol. II., pp. 890-505. 

2. "What brought most pleasure to the hearts of the conquerors was 
the liberation of 12,000 Christian captives, who had been chained to the 
oar on board the Moslem galleys, and who now came forth, with tears 
of joy streaming down tlieir haggard cheeks, to bless their deliverers." — 
P)-escoU, Philip II., Vol. III., p. 350. 

3. Kepler's greatest discovery was uf three Laws which determine 
the motions of the jilanets. Sir ,Tohn Herschel pronounced them "the 
most important and bc.iutiful system of g(V)metrical I'elations which 
have ever been discovered by a mere inductive in-ocess." In his devout 
joy at the grandeur of the truth that had dawned upon him, Kei)ler 
exclaimed, "O God, I think Thy thoughts after Thee!" And when it 
was said to him that few would ever be able to understand his ai)struse 
reasonings, he replied, "It matters not; I can well afford to wait a 
hundred years for a reader, since God has waited six thousand years 
for an ol)server." 

4. Tycho Brahe was of a noble Swedish family. An eclipse of the 
sun, which occurred in August, 15(i0, four months before he comjileted 
his 15th year, gave direction to his whole life. For, while sui^iiosed 
to be reading law at Leijisic, he employed the whole time while his 
tutor was asleep, in a study of the stars and planets. Subsciiuently, 
Frederic II. of Denmark, gave him an island near Copenliagen, and 



MOTES. 327 

built for him there the magnificent observatory called Oranienborg, or 
City of the Heavens. After twenty years sj^ent in important discoveries, 
Tycho lost his royal patron, and soon afterwards the pensions by which 
he had been enabled to maintain his establishment. He accepted the 
patronage of the Emperor Rudolph, and settled, in A. D. KJOO, at Prague, 
where Kepler became his a.ssistant. Tycho Brahe discovered the true 
theory of comets, catalogued 777 stars, and made some great improve- 
meilts in the theories concerning the moon. 

5. This extraordinary man was born Baron von Wallenstein, but be- 
came, by imperial appointment, Duke of Mecklenl)urg, Friedland, and 
Sagaii, and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Though his parents 
were Protestants, he was educated in the Jesuit college :it Olmiitz and 
afterwards studied at Bologna and Padua. His belief in astrology—/, e., 
in the power of i be stars over human destiny— he held in common with 
most of the men of his time. He had powerful enemies at court, and 
it is p()ssil)le that his treasonable designs Avere exaggerated. But it is 
certain that, after the battle of Leipsic, Wallenstein sent a messenger 
to Gustavus, oflfering, if the king would entrust him with 1.5,000 men, to 
conciuer IJohemia and Moravia, surprise Vienna, and drive the empe- 
ror into Italy. The king did not trust a man who could so openly 
avow himself a traitor, and declined the ofTer. 

6. Gustavus Adolphus was a son of Chai-les IX. of Sweden, and 
grandson of Gustavus Vasa, the founder of the dynasty (§585). Be- 
coming king before he was 17 years of age, he found himself engaged 
in war with Denmark. Before this was ended, a conflict with Russia 
liad begun, and this was followed by a 9 years' war with the powerful 
kingdom of Poland. Gustavus secured at last an honorable peace, to- 
gether with accessions of territory south and east of the Baltic; but the 
greatest advantage of all was the self-discipline gained through expe- 
rience which fitted him for his great part in the Thirty Years' War. 

Schiller says: "The glorious battle of Leipsic effected a great change 
in the conduct of Gustavus Adolphus, as well as in the opinion which 
both friends and foes entertained of him. ... In all his subsequent 
o))erations, more boldness and decision are observable, greater deter- 
mination, even amidst the nrost unfavorable circumstances, a more 
lofty tone toward his adversaries, a more dignified bearing towards his 
allies, and even in his clemency something of the forbearance of a con- 
queror." 

Gustavus hated flattery. Shortly before the battle of Lutzen, when 
the country people were crowding about him, eager to look upon one 
wlioni they considered as their guardian angel and avenger, a.nd, if 
possible, to touch the sheath of his sword or the hem of his garment, 
he exclaimed, "Is it not as if this people would make a God of me? 
I fear heaven will punish us for this presumption, and soon reveal to 
this deluded multitude my weakness and mortality ! " 

On the morning of the battle of Lutzen, the whole Swedish army, 
kneeling, joined in the devotions of tluMr king, and then broke forth 
in singing Luther's hymn, '■'Ein feste Burg ist uiifier Gott," which has 
been called tlie " Battle-song of the Reformation." It was the first time 
that (iustavus and Wallenstein— the two greatest generals in Europe- 
were to meet in battle on ecjual terms, and every soldier felt how much 
was at stake. Three imperial brigades were put to flight by the im- 
petuous onset of the Swedes, but were rallied and led back by Wallen- 
stein. A colonel <>f Swedish eavali'y having fallen, the king took his 
coinmand, and charging lar in advance of his men, received a mortal 
wound. His cousin, the Duke of Lauenburg, was close behind him, 
and received him in his arms. "Brother," said the king, "I have 
enough; look only to your own life." His men fought all the more 
bravely in the grief of their loss; and, after nine hours' desperate com- 
bat, the troops of Wallenstein were withdrawn. 

7. To Oxenstiern, the lifelong counselor of Gustavus Adolphus, and 
guardian of his. daughter {g58()), we owe the only attempt at Swedish 
colonization in America (?583). Though its connection with Sweden 
was short, the settlement remained vrnder Dutch and English control, 
and descendants of Oxenstiern's coloni.sts may still be found in Phila- 
delphia and the adjacent country. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EUROPEAN COLONIES. 




HE bold explorers of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries were followed by a more patient and ploddhig set 
of men, who founded permanent settlements in the newly 
discovered lands. 

The Hindu peninsula was already the seat of a great 
empire (§ 377), and of a swarming population far more 
skillful and industrious than their European visitors. Here, 
then, was no room for colonization ; the Portuguese, and, 
after them, the Dutch, French, and English, had to con- 
tent themselves with a few trading factories guarded by 
forts. 

(328) 



SPANIARDS IN AMERICA. 329 

575. Jesuit missionaries opened the way for Portuguese 
traders into China and Japan. Macao was given them by 
the Chinese emperor, and continued in their possession 
until it became a free port, in 1846. The Japanese seem 
to have been less favorably impressed by their first ac- 
quaintance with Europeans, for, in 1637, the government 
ordered a general massacre of native Christians and the 
expulsion of all foreigners, while natives were forbidden to 
leave the country. For more than two centuries Japan 
shut herself up from all the world ; but in our day she 
has suddenly opened her doors and welcomed not only 
trade, but the most familiar intercourse with the western 
nations. 

576. The great rich domain of Brazil,' in South America, 
was divided, by the king of Portugal, into extensive fiefs, 
called captaincies. By their subjection to Spain (§ 525), 
the Portuguese lost their whole eastern dominion, and, for 
a time, that of Brazil; but the latter was regained and at 
length became an independent empire, ruled by a branch 
of the royal family of Portugal. 

577. Spain treated her colonists in the New World in 
the most selfish and despotic manner. They were forbid- 
den to make their own clothes, furniture, tools, or even 
some necessary articles of food; for all these things must 
be bought of the mother-country. They were not per- 
mitted to build ships, nor to trade with the colonies of 
other nations. Once a year a merchant fleet from Spain 
brought whatever they were supposed to need, in exchange 
for American products ; and the colonists must pay what- 
ever their masters chose to ask, or lose all opportunity 
to dispose of their merchandise. Their governors were 
natives of Spain, who had no interest in the colonies ex- 
cept to enrich themselves as soon as possible. Under 
such bondage, it is needless to say that the Spanish col- 
onies did not flourish; and, though they have now 



330 MODERN HISTORY. 

secured their independence, the people are still lacking in 
enterprise. 

578. Doubtless, this stupid tyranny was fortunate for 
the European Protestants of the sixteenth century ; for a 
wise and liberal system of government would have drawn 
enormous wealth from these vast and rich domains, and 
Charles V. and Philip II. might, indeed, have been lords 
of the world (^§444, 525). But, then, if Spain had been 
either wise or liberal, .she would not have chosen to crush 
the Reformation, to ruin the Netherlands, or to deprive 
herself of the industry of the Moors and Jews (§ 434). 

579. The false theory that only gold and silver consti- 
tuted wealth led to a comparative neglect of the fertile 
soil of the colonies, and to stringent edicts against export 
ing the precious metals from Spain ; while the decay of 
industry left the Spaniards very little to buy at home ; and 
so their gold would have been nearly useless if the edicts 
had not been disobeyed. It must be confessed that the 
Dutch and English shared the same erroneous ideas. 
Their colonies were supposed to exist only for the benefit 
of the parent state, and were narrowly watched lest they 
should grow too prosperous. 

580. Though the whole western continent, with the ex- 
ception of Brazil, had been given to Spain by Pope Alex- 
ander VI., France and England made good their claim to 
a large share of North America. The beautiful meadows 
of Acadia, now Nova Scotia, were settled by French peas- 
ants about 1604; Quebec was founded in 1608, and Mon- 
treal in 1640. The French policy was to treat the Indians 
like friends and brothers, and so secure their aid. They 
slept in the wigwams of the savages, ate of their loath- 
some food, and fought their battles with the terrible fire- 
arms which were sure to give victory over those who 
encountered them for the first time. 

581. In this way, with an Algonquin war-party, Samuel 



FOUNDING OF NEW YORK. 331 

Champlain,^ in 1609, explored the beautiful lake which now 
bears his name, and encountered the Iroquois of central 
New York. At another time he penetrated the Canadian 
wilderness to the headwaters of the Ottawa and to Lake 
Huron, gaining a host of savage allies. La 
Salle^ explored the Mississippi River from its 
source to the Gulf of Mexico; and caused a loud-voiced 
herald to proclaim that the "most high, mighty, invincible, 
and victorious prince, Louis the Great, king of France and 
Navarre," was lord of all the country from which the great 
river drew its waters. His attempt to colonize "Louisi- 
ana" — so the whole vast region was called in honor of 
Louis XIV. — resulted in a sad failure. 

582. The first settlement within the present limits of 
the L'nited States was made by French Protestants, in 
1564, under the patronage of Coligny (§' 480). It was 
extermniated by Spaniards from St. Augustine; but the 
recollection of the attempt led many exiled Huguenots to 
seek homes in the Carolinas, when, in 1685, the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes deprived them of safety at home. 

583, Early in the seventeenth century, Henry Hudson,^ 
in the service of the Dutch Republic, while looking for a 
north-west passage to India, discovered the river which 
now bears his name. The Dutch West India Company 
undertook to colonize the "New Netherlands," including, 
under that name, the whole tract between Chesapeake 
Bay and Connecticut River, which Hudson had explored. 
A fort and a few huts were built on Manhattan 

Island, for purposes of trade with the- Indians, 
and hence grew, in time, the greatest city of the western 
hemisphere. A settlement of Swedes on the Delaware was 
conquered and absorbed into New Netherlands ; but soon 
afterwards the whole Dutch territory was ceded to the 
English (§ 545), who divided it into the colonies of New 
York and New Jersey. 



332 MODERN HISTORY. 

584. The English colonies in America were founded, 
mainly, by private enterprise, and owed nothing to the 
home government except the land which they occupied. 
They covered only a strip of Atlantic coast from the 
St. John's River to the Penobscot; but, though far less 
extensive than the French settlements, they were, at the 
close of the seventeenth century, more populous and flour- 
ishing. Each of the thirteen colonies had its House of 
Assembly chosen by the peojjle, like the "Commons" at 
home ; while the royal power was represented by a gov- 
ernor appointed by the king. 

The oldest colony was Virginia, so named in honor of 
Queen Elizabeth, though it was not permanently founded 
until the reign of her successor. Its capital city, as well 
as the river by which it stood, bore the name of James I. 
Among the earliest adventurers in Virginia were many 
young cavaliers, who had ruined their fortunes by a self- 
indulgent life, and hoped to find gold and jewels enough 
in the New World to make them rich again. These hopes 
were, of course, doomed to disappointment, and the colony 
was nearly destroyed by famine and the hostility of the 
natives; but, as soon as industry and good sense took the 
place of idle speculation, Jamestown began to flourish. 

The New England colonies were founded in no expec- 
tation of sudden wealth. The first pilgrims willingly ac- 
cepted lives of toil, hardship, and peril for the sake of 
"freedom to worship God" in a manner which their con- 
sciences approved. It must be confessed that they some- 
times denied to others the religious freedom which they 
had taken such pains to require for themselves. But relig- 
ious liberty grew by all these trials. The colony of Rhode 
Island was founded by an exile from Massachusetts. 
Rhode Island has the honor of the first distinct enactment 
that no man should be disturbed, or in any way called in 
question, on account of his religion; and. Maryland was 
not long in following the good example. In his colony 



EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS. 333 

on the Delaware, the Quaker, William Penn,® put in prac- 
tice the just and peaceable principles of his sect. He 
dealt with the Indians as if they had been Christians like 
Iiimself; and so well did the savages appreciate his confi- 
dence that no Quaker settlement ever suffered from their 
attacks. 



SYNOPSIS OF EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS 
BEFORE A. D. 1700. 

Portuguese: — Madeira, 142 1 ; the Azores, 1432; Malabar Coast, 
1498; Cochin, 1503; Goa, 1510; Ormuz, 1515; Macao, 
1517; Bombay, 1530; Gold Coast (Africa), 1610; 
Brazil, 1501-1530; Capital at Bahia, 1549. 

Spanish: — Canaries, 1405 ; Hayti, 1495; New Grenada, 1510; Cuba, 
1511; Venezuela, 1520; Mexico, 1521; Nicaragua, 
1522; Peru, 1532; Quito, Guayaquil, and Buenos 
Ayres, 1535; Santiago de Chili, 1540; Philippine 
Islands, 1566; Porto Bello, 1584. 

French: — Nova Scotia, 1604; Quebec, 1608; Montreal, 1640; 
Guiana, 1604; Senegal, 1637; Pondicherry, 1674. 

Dutch: — Guiana, 1580; Spice Islands, 1607; Java, 1612; Gold 
Coast, 161 1; New Amsterdam, 1614; Cura9ao, 1634; 
Mauritius, 1644; Cape of Good Hope, 1650. 

British : —'inxs.i, 1612; Madras, 1639; Bombay, 1662; Guiana, 
1630; Gold Coast, 1661 ; Virginia, 1607 ; Massachu- 
setts, 1620, New Hampshire, 1623; Connecticut, 
1635; Rhode Island, 1636; North Carolina, 1653; 
South Carolina, 1670; Pennsylvania, 1683. 



Read Robertson's "America;" Parkman's "Pioneers of France 
in the New World ; " and Bancroft's " History of the United 
States," Vols. I, II, and HI. 



534 MODERN HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. Brazil was the seat of the first a!i;ricultural colonies in tlie New 
World. The sugar cane was early broufilit from Madeira, and was found 
well suited to tlie soil. (Jreat plantations and manufactories were es- 
tablished, and quantities of siiijnr were exported to Europe. Kiii<; .lohn 
111., of Portugal, made the first atteiui)t to give Brazil a regularly organ- 
ized tiovi rnnient, by granting domains called captaincies, each extend- 
ing "lO Ic.iiiues along the coast, and as far inland as the means and 
couragr of the proprietor allowed him to penetrate. The first captaincy- 
was in the present province of San Paulo; and here, about 1552, the first 
college was founded. It exists to this day, as a great law school. 

The magnificent harbor of Rio Janeiro was first explored by Martin 
de Sousa, in 1531, but his settlement was upon the island of St. Vincent; 
and the site of the present capital was first occupied by the French 
under Villegagnon, in 1538. Villegagnou gained the favor of Colign.v 
(HSO and note) by intimating that his colony would serve as a refuge 
for the persecuted Huguenots; and thus secured a large number of in- 
dustrious and valuable settlers. But as soon as he thought himself safe 
beyond the sea, he began to oppress and ill-treat his colonists, so that 
many of them felt obliged to return, and 10,000 more, who were waiting 
in France to embark, changed their minds. Finding that his treachery 
had defeated itself, Villegagnon sailed for France, and the Portuguese 
(lovernor General attacked and dispersed the settlement, replacing it 
by a Portuguese colony. 

The first Governor General of Brazil, Thome de Sousa, had founded, 
in 1519, the city of Bahia for a cominon capital of all the settlenuiits 
which now dotted the coast ft-om the Amazon to the La Plata. :Many 
orphan boys and girls were sent out by the Portuguese government— 
tlie boys to be educated by the Jesuits, who were teaching the elements 
of religion and morality to both colonists and savages. 

While Brazil was nominally subject to Spain, the Dutch, who were 
at war with that power, made many eflTorts to establish themselves on 
the coast. They captured Bahia, and, though it was soon lo.st. Count 
Maurice of Nassau maintained Dutch supremacy in Brazil for fourteen 
years, and aspired to be the founder of a great western empire. 

But" in 1640, a revolution in Portugal placed the Braganzas, the pres- 
ent ruling family, on the throne, and, in a few years, the Brazilian 
provinces were reduced to obedience. 

2. Samuel de Champlain, first Governor of Canada, was born at 
Brouage, in France, 15H7. He gained the favor of Htnry IV. by his 
gallant service in the French navy in the war against Spain, and, in 
l(j()3, visited the St. Lawrence under the king's patronage. Five years 
later, he laid the foundations of Quebec, and the next summer joined 
the Algonquins in one of their expeditions to the interior. Hi's first 
meeting with the Iroquois was at the present site of Crown Point, in 
the State of New York. They had never seen fire-arms, and were con- 
fident of victory. Champlain placed himself at the center of the Al- 
gonquin line, his two French comrades at either eitd, and at their first 
aim three Iroquois chiefs fell dead. Dismayed by this novel mode of 
warfare, the Iroquois fled, thinking themselves pursued by bolts from 
Heaven-. Champlain became Governor of Canada in 1020. The English 
captured Quebec in 1628, but restored it a year or two later on the con- 
clusion of peace, and there Champlain died in 1635. 

3. The exciting story of La Salle's adventures must be read in Park- 
man's History of the " Discovery of the Great West." La Salle was the 
discoverer ofthe Ohio and the Illinois Rivers; he built and launched above 
Niagara Falls the " first vessel that ever plowed the waters of Lake 
Erie," and explored the lakes as far as Green Bay; built Fort Cr&vecoeur 
below Peoria, and thus claimed Illinois for the French by right of first 
settlement: explored the Mississippi, and finally was murdered in Texas 
by some of his own men, after twenty years of incredible hardships. 

4. In 1607, Hudson, in the service of London merchants, had cruised 
along the eastern coast ot Greenland farther than any mariner had 
gone before, and finding his northward progress at length blocked by 
ice, had crossed the polar sea to Spitzbergen, and vainly tried to reach 



NOTES. 335 

the Pacific tiirough the frozen passage between that island and Nova 
Zembla. The next year, in the service, now, of the Dutch East India 
Company, he renewed this search for a north-east passage to China- 
but, being again thwarted by the ice, he turned westward, and, after a 
stormy voyage of nearly three months, reached the banks of Newfound- 
land. Continuing his voyage to the southward, he touched the coast 
of what is now Maine, cruised in sight of Cape Cod, and explored Del- 
aware Bay, before, retracing part of his course, he entered the beautiful 
harbor of New York. He landed a boat's crew at Ooney Island, Sept. 
4, lf)()!». Afterwards he ascended what he called the "great north river," 
to beyond where Albany now stands, hoping to find that it afforded an 
entrance to the Pacific. His next voyage was his last. In 1010 he dis- 
covered and explored the great northern bay which bears Ills name 
and spent the following winter there, in great suffering for want of 
provisions. In the spring of 1611, his crew mutinied, and turned Hud- 
son and his son adrift in an open boat on that stormy sea, while they 
returned with the ship to Europe. 

5. "William Penn was the eldest son of Admiral Penn, an able and 
distinguished officer in the British navy. While studying at Oxford, he 
became interested in the new sect of Friends or " Quakers " and his 
adherence to their principles as to dress, manners, and worship brought 
upon him the stern displeasure of his father, who had destined his son 
to the gay court life to which his wealth and station entitled him. 
Twice the younger Penn was expelled from his father's house, and 
twice at least he was imprisoned for his dissent from the established 
worship. The admiral, however, became fully reconciled with his son, 
whose coui-se he even approved in his dying words: "Let nothing in 
this world ever tempt you to wrong your conscience." 

Coming into possession of his father's large fortune, Willinin Penn 
took an active part in the liberal politics of his tinae, warmly furHier- 
ing the election of Algernon Sidney to parliament (^518). DiN;"ii)poiiited 
for the time in his hopes of England, he resumed his youthful pioject 
of establishing a better society among the American forests. He liad 
been called to act as umpire in llie settlement of a dispute concerning 
Western New Jersey, and used his power afterwards as trustee for that 
colony, in securing a very liberal constitution, and promoting the emi- 
gration of "Friends" to the eastern banks of the Delaware. In 1680, 
he procured from Charles II. a large tract west of that river, with full 
sovereign rights, in payment of a large debt which the English gov- 
ernment owed his father. He intended to call it Si/lvcoiia, as a land of 
foi'ests; the king insisted on naming it Penn.spkania in spite of Penn's 
remonstrances, who " feared lest it should be looked on as vanity." 
Here tlie "Quaker Prince" desired to establish a "free colony for the 
good and oppressed of all nations," using his sovereign power only for 
the full trial of his "holy experiment," whether perfect .iustii-c' and 
good will, without severe restrictions, would constitute a sec'ur<' foun- 
dation for a state. The name which he gave his new capital was a 
pledge of the "brotherly love " that he hoped to see prevailing. 

Swedes, Finns, and Dutch were already numerous along the Dela- 
ware (see Ch. VII., note 7). Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia, 
was founded by a company of " Friends " from Kircliheim, near Worms. 
In Novemlier, 1682, Penn made a treaty with the chiefs of the neigh- 
boring Indians, promising them the same just and equal friendship 
which he designed for his white tenants. 

The Duke of York, who, in 1685, became King James II. of England, 
had been a comrade and warm friend of Admiral Penn, and faitlifuUy 
kept his promise to the dying Admiral by continuing his friendship 
and protection to his son. In 1682, the duke bestowed upon Penn the 
"three lower counties" on Delaware Bay, which now constitute the 
state of Delaware. 

Penn becanre poor in the prosecution of his great "experiment." He 
was defrauded by his agents, and preferred to go to prison rather than 
attempt to satisfy their unjust claims. A moderate loan, which he 
asked of the colonial legislature, was refused him, and he died, 1718, 
having spent a long life in the service of otliers, with some reason to 
doubt whether his attempt to promote justice and brotherly love were 
altogether a success. 





CHAPTER IX. 

THE NORTHERN KINGDOMS. 

j^ENMARK, Sweden, and Norway were 
in 1397 united under one queen, 
Margaret Waldemar. Her successor 
was less fortunate; he lost all three king- 
doms, and ended his days as a pirate. 
Christian of Oldenburg reunited Marga- 
ret's dominions, and his family continued 
to rule Denmark more than 400 years; 
but the barbarous tyranny of his grandson 
occasioned a revolt in Sweden, and the 
rise of a new royal race, with Gustavus 
Vasa as its founder. This young noble- 
man had suffered grievous wrongs from 
Frederic the Great. ^^^^ ''Ncro of the Nortli" — his father hav- 
ing been beheaded for no crime, and himself imprisoned. 
He escaped, and, putting on the coarse garments of an ox- 
driver, hid himself among the peasantry until he could raise 
an army of volunteers, with which he defeated 
the Danes, captured Upsala, and restored the 
independence of Sweden. The Diet then declared him 
king, and made the crown hereditary in his family. 

586. His great grandson was the hero of the Thirty 
Years' War (§§564-569). The early death of Gustavus 
Adolphus, upon the field of Lutzen, left the crown to his 
little daughter, Christina,^ then only six years old. As 
she grew up, Christina displayed wonderful talents and 
accomphshments, but no steadiness of purpose. She was 
(336; 



IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 



337 



soon tired of governing; and, bestowing her kingdom upon 
her cousin, Charles X., spent the rest of her Hfe in aim- 
less wanderings. 

587. The vast but ill-governed realm of Poland held 
discordant elements enough to keep not only itself but all 
its neighbors in a perpetual stir. The kings were elected, 
and had little power compared with the nobles. These 
were entitled to levy armies and make war whenever any 
proceeding of king or diet failed to please them; and, 
naturally, war went on almost all the time. The powerful 
neighbors of Poland — Sweden, Denmark, Brandenburg, 
Russia, and Austria — found many occasions to interfere 
in her affairs at the invitation of one or another party; 
and at length, as we shall see, the last three named divided 
her whole territory among them. 

588. Russia, after a hundred years' fighting, was made 
free from her Mongol oppressors (§376), about A. D. 1481, 
by I'van III. Still she was only an inland grand duchy, 
less powerful than Poland or Bohemia — very difterent from 
that mighty empire which now occupies nearly half of 
Europe and all northern Asia, while her victorious armies 
have almost reached the borders of India. The Black Sea 
was still surrounded by the dominion of Turkey, the Baltic 
and its gulfs by that of Sweden; and it was a hundred 
years later that an entrance for English traders into Russia 
was effected through the Arctic Ocean, by the new port 
of Archangel. 

589. Under Ivan the Terrible, the first "Czar of Mus- 
covy" (A. D. 1 538 -1 584), Kazan and Astrachan were 
taken from the Tartars; and the vast frozen plains of 
Siberia, extending eastward to the Pacific, were added to 
the Russian dominion. Ivan's son, Fe'odor, was last of 
the line of Ruric (§327), and his death was followed by 
years of civil war. In A. D. 16:3, Michael Ro'manofF, 
ancestor of the present Czar, came to the throne. 



338 MODERN HISTORY. 

590. His grandson, Feodor II., having no children, and 
passing over his incompetent brother Ivan, bequeathed his 
crown to his half-brother Peter, a bright but obstinate boy 
of ten years. Though Ivan was too feeble to protest, hia 
sister Sophia interfered in his behalf, and managed to have 
the two crowned as joint so\ereigns, with herself as regent. 
Even in boyhood Peter perceived the needs of his empire, 
and resolved to redeem it from barbarism, and give it a 
high rank among the European states. He studied dili- 
gently, and practiced himself in all that he wished his 
people to know. He drilled in the ranks of a new com- 
pany of soldiers, with which he meant to replace the 
Strelitz, or imperial guard, which had become too powerful; 
and he attended so closely to all the details of his little 
navy, that he became "the best carpenter, the best pilot, 
and the best admiral in the North." 

591. Still further to educate himself, he resolved to visit 
the western nations. Traveling as a servant in one of his 
own embassies, he arrived in Holland, and engaged as a 

ship-builder in one of the dock-yards of Am- 
' ^^' sterdam. Here he toiled, in rough clothes, 
among the other workmen, obeyed orders, and received 
his weekly wages Hke the rest. In England he took less 
pains to disguise his imperial rank, and was treated with 
friendly attention by William III. (§555)- 

592. On his homeward journey he heard of a new revolt 
planned by his sister, and hastened to put it down with 
cruel severity. Sophia was immured in a convent, the 
Strelitzes were disbanded, and Peter's new regiments took 
their place. Then came a struggle for reform, in which 
the Czar had need for all his obstinacy, to overcome the 
superstitions and fi.xed notions of his people. The long 
robes and bushy beards of the men were cut short by im- 
perial decree; for, in small things as in great, Peter meant 
that his own will should control all the millions who called 



PETER THE GREAT. 339 

him lord. In essential matters, he met less resistance; 
colleges, foundries, factories, and frigates were soon created, 
and one great war-vessel was built by the Czar himself 
Having thus taken measures to civilize his empire, Peter 
thought the time had come to give it an outlet to the 
Baltic. 

593. Charles XII. was now king of Sweden" — an am- 
bitious youth, whose favorite hero and model was Alexander 
the Great (§§160-164). His accession, in 1697, when 
only fifteen years old, tempted three powerful neighbors 
to increase their dominions at his expense. The Czar 
besieged Narva with 80,000 men while Charles 

was engaged in a war with Denmark. But this 
war ended sooner than Peter had expected, and Charles, 
with only 8,000 men, came to the relief of his beleaguered 
town. The Russian troops were mostly barbarians, clothed 
in skins of wild beasts, and armed with arrows and clubs. 
The Czar's magnificent train of artillery was useless, for 
want of gunners. He suffered a ruinous defeat, his entire 
army being killed or captured. 

594. Peter had that rare wisdom which can learn of 
an enemy, and draw strength even from disaster : ' ' The 
Swedes will defeat us for a time," said he, "but in the 
end they will teach us how to conquer them." Charles 
turned aside to conquer Augustus of Saxony, who was king 
of Poland, but whom he succeeded in dethroning. Peter 
seized the land he wanted near the Gulf of Finland, trans- 
ported thither 300,000 peasants from all parts of his empire, 
and, among the marshes formed by the Neva, laid the 
foundations of his splendid new capital, St. Petersburg. 

595. Having disposed of Poland, Charles invaded Russia 
with a great army. Here cold, hunger, and the fatigues 
of marching through forests and bogs made sad havoc 
with his troops; and at Pultawa he met his first defeat 
(A. D. 1709). Both sovereigns were present. Charles was 



340 MODERN HISTORY. 

carried on a litter, being disal^led by a wound; but when the 
battle was lost, he mounted a horse and made his retreat into 
Turkey. He soon persuaded the Sultan to join in war against 
the Czar, whose ambition he had reason to fear. Peter, march- 
ing to meet the immense Turkish force, was disappointed by 
his allies, and found himself in almost as dangerous a case as 
was Charles at Pultawa, surrounded by superior numbers, 
cut off from supplies, and unable to advance or retreat. He 
was saved by the adroitness of his wife, the Empress Cath- 
erine, who, presenting all her jewels to the Grand Vizier, 
managed to secure a peace favorable to the Czar. 

596. Charles remained more than five years in Turkey, 
a troublesome and unwelcome guest, while his kingdom, sur- 
rounded by many enemies, was going to ruin for want of its 
head. At last he was forced to depart, and made the whole 

journey on horseback in sixteen days. Arriving 

at Stralsund, he ordered war to be prosecuted 

more fiercely than ever. But his good fortune was now 

exhausted ; he lost all his territories east and south of the 

Baltic, and met his death while besieging a town in Norway. 

597. Peter's untiring perseverance wrought immense 
benefits to his country, and justified his new title. Emperor 
of all the Russias; while all subsequent times have agreed 
with his own in styling him Peter the Great. Before his 
death he bestowed the crown upon his wife,^ who reigned 
two years alone as the Empress Catherine I., (A. D. 1725 
-1727). This remarkable woman had been a Swedish 
peasant, and was one of the many prisoners taken by the 
Russians at the capture of Marienburg. She became a 
servant in the house of Prince Menschikoff — himself once 
a baker-boy — where the Czar saw her, and soon recognized 
a quickness and firmness of mind equal to his own. She 
aided him in all his plans, while her even temper was 
able to soothe the violent fits of anger to which he too 
often gave way. 



THE KINGDOM OF PRUSSIA. 341 

598. Prussia was conquered by the Teutonic Knights 
(§361) about A. D. 1231-1243. They redeemed it from 
a wilderness of marshes and thickets, and gradually civilized 
its pagan and half savage inhabitants. After a long series 
of wars with Poland, a large part of its territories were 
absorbed into that kingdom, while the Grand Master had 
to do homage for the rest; but, in 1526, Prussia became 
an independent duchy, and, in 1618, it was annexed to 
Brandenburg. 

599. After the Thirty Years' War had passed by, like a 
desolating storm, the able management of the "Great 
Elector," Frederic William (A. D. 1640- 1688), restored 
prosperity to the country. He gave lands and homes to 
20,000 French refugees from the persecutions of Louis 
XIV. (§626), and their industry converted the sandy wastes 
about Berlin into gardens and orchards. Many of the 
exiles, too, were learned and accomplished people, whose 
language, literature, and manners brought refinement hith- 
erto unknown into Prussian .society. 

600. The son of the Great Elector was made King 
Frederic I. of Prussia by the Emperor Leopold, who wanted 
his help in the War of the Spanish Succession. Prussia 
was already a great military powder, and it became still 
greater under Frederic William L, its second king (A. D. 
1 7 13 -1 740). He was a morose and insufferable tyrant — 
so penurious that his children went away hungry from his 
table, and so violent of temper that he threw^ the plates 
at their heads if they dared to complain. He flogged his 
son, the crown-prince, when eighteen years old, before the 
eyes of his future subjects; and when the prince attempted 

I to escape to foreign parts, he was imprisoned as a deserter, 
and would probably have been shot if the emperor had 
not interfered. 

601. One of the king's whims was to have a brigade of 
the tallest grenadiers in Europe, and he took the greatest 



342 MODERN HISTORY. 



pains to collect them from all the northern countries. 
Every man was more than six feet high, and some even 
approached eight feet. If any king wanted to please 
Frederic William, he sent him a present of the tallest man 
he could find. His recruiting agents were always on the 
watch, and once they made a serious mistake by kidnap- 
ping the imperial embassador ! The most humble apologies 
were made, for the only being on earth that the king 
stood in awe of was the "Caesar." For all this, Frederic 
William was an honest, shrewd, and generally well-meaning 
man; and he left his kingdom in much better condition 
than he found it 

602. Frederic II., the Great, was the most noted general 
of his times; and his wars began the long contest between 
Austria and Prussia, which has lately ended in making the 
latter supreme in Germany. He came to the throne in 
May, 1740, and the next autumn the direct male line of 
the House of Hapsburg ended with the emperor Charles 
VI. Having no son, Charles had tried to secure his 
hereditary dominions to his daughter, and the imperial 
crown to her husband, Francis of Lorraine. The daughters 
of his elder brother had a better right; but, during his 
lifetime, Charles obtained their consent, and that of most 
of the European sovereigns, to his "Pragmatic Sanction," 
which arranged the succession as he wished it. 

603. No sooner was Charles dead than most of the 
powers forgot their promises. Frederic II. marched into 
Silesia, and soon made himself master of it; while the 
electors gave the imperial crown to Charles Albert of 
Bavaria, nephew of the late emperor. Maria Theresa was 
in a perilous position. Great Britain was her only ally, 
while Prussia, Poland, Sardinia, and the three Bourbon 
courts of France, Spain, and Naples were against her, 
beside many of the German states. Her cousin was in- 
stated as archduke of Austria and king of Bohemia. 



FREDERIC THE GREAT. 343 



604. Taking refuge in Hungary, Maria Theresa presented 
herself, with her infant son in her arms, before the assembly 
of nobles, and asked their aid in regaining her rights. 
Though they had many causes of complaint against her 
house, the brave princes were moved by the sight of their 
young sovereign in her beauty and distress. The great 
hall rang with their shout, "Let us die for our king^ Maria 
Theresa!" One hundred thousand men were soon under 
arms : not only were Austria and Bohemia reconquered, 
but Munich, the capital of Bavaria, was taken, and the 
emperor Charles VII. was expelled from his own heredi- 
tary dominions. 

605. In 1745 he died, and Francis of Lorraine then 
received the crown of Charlemagne. The "War of the 
Austrian Succession " was ended three years later by the 
treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Though formally at peace, 
the empress-queen cherished a bitter resentment against 
Frederic of Prussia, who had seized the moment of her 
distress to rob her of her province of Silesia; and she 
deeply laid her plans to combine all continental Europe 
against him. Russia, Sweden, Saxony, and France — the 
latter ultimately joined by the other Bourbon kingdoms 
(§603) — took sides with Austria. 

606. Frederic struck the first blow by a sudden invasion 
of Saxony. The Austrians, coming to its relief, were 
defeated at Lowositz, and the entire Saxon army then 
surrendered to him, most of its common soldiers enlisting 
in his service. Pushing into Bohemia, Frederic gained a 
great victory over Prince Charles of Lorraine, the em- 
peror's brother. Still his affairs were so desperate — his 
whole dominion overrun by enemies eager for its destruc- 
tion — that he at one time almost decided to give up the 
single-handed contest, and end his days by poison. He 
took braver counsel, rallied his few remaining forces, and 
by his brilliant victories of Rossbach and Leuthen, A. D. 



344 MODERN HISTORY. 



1757, astonished the world. Mr. Pitt (§644), becoming 
premier in Great Britain, sent a liberal supply of the sinews 
of war; a wild horde of Russians, Cossacks and Calmuck 
Tartars, was defeated at Zorndorf. 

607. Yet greater dangers and disasters were in store for 
Frederic. Three Austrian armies surrounded him in Silesia, 
while an overwhelming force of Russians occupied Berlin, 
destroyed its arsenals and foundries, and plundered its 
citizens. His genius and resolution did not fail. He de- 
feated the Austrian generals one by one; and Russia was 
soon changed from an enemy to a devoted friend. The 
Empress Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Peter the Great, 
died in 1762, and was succeeded by her nephew, Peter HI, 
The young Czar had a romantic admiration for Frederic, 
and immediately stopped the operations of his armies in 
Prussia. The "Seven Years' War" was ended early in 
1763, having cost nearly a million human lives, without 
making any change in the boundaries of the warring nations. 
Prussia kept Silesia, the original cause of dispute, and took 
her place among the great powers of Europe. 

608. Peter HI. had reigned scarcely six months, when 
his wife caused him to be deposed and assassinated, and 
herself assumed the crown as Catherine H.^ Though so 
wicked a woman, the Czarina had extraordinary talents for 
governing. She perfected many reforms which Peter the 
(ireat had only begun; made herself the leader of the 
northern nations ; dismembered Poland f conquered the 
Tartars of the Crimea — the last of the Mongol hordes 
which had once enslaved Russia (^376); and established 
her power on the Black Sea. 

609. Maria Theresa, the Austrian empress-queen, was still 
living, but her son, Joseph H., had succeeded his father 
as emperor of the West. Catherine's ambitious movements 
alarmed both him and Frederic the Great, lest Poland and 
Turkey were to be swallowed up by Russia. Austrian and 



PARTITIONS OF POLAND, 345 

Prussian armies were marched into Poland, and the Czarina, 
unable to seize the whole prize herself, signed a treaty by 
which a third part of the Polish territory was divided 
among the three powers. Maria Theresa resisted the un- 
just scheme as long as she could, and at last signed the 
treaty with the following protest: ^^ Placet, '^'^ 
because so many great and learned men will ' ' '''^"'" 
it; but when I am dead, the consequences will appear of 
this violation of all that has hitherto been held just and 
sacred." 

610. After her death, two successive "partitions com- 
pleted the work of spoliation, and Poland, as a kingdom, 
ceased to exist. The Poles made heroic efforts to preserve 
their independence; their general, Kosciusko,^ after fighting 
many battles, was captured and immured in a Russian 
dungeon; the last king was compelled to abdicate, and 
the central part of the kingdom, with the capital, became 
a mere province of Russia. Catherine the Great died one 
year after the completion of this crime, of which the main 
guilt rests upon her. 



'* Literally, "It pleases me" — the form in which emperors and 
kings usually gave their consent to laws and treaties. 

Point out the dominions of Margaret Waldemar. Of Gustavus 
Adolphus. Of Peter the Great at his' accession. Of the present 
Czar. The old and the new capital of Russia. The Polish capital. 
That of Sweden. Of Prussia. The dominions of Maria Theresa. 
The province conquered from her by Frederic the Great. Pultawa, 
Stralsund. 

Read Voltaire's "Peter the Great" and "Charles the Twelfth," 
C'arlyle's "Frederic the Great," and Dyer's "Modern Europe." 



346 



MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. The education of Christina was directed by Chancellor Oxenstiern 
and four other learned men, according to the substantial and solid plan 
marked out by her father. "She learned Latin, Greek, Hebrew, history , 
politics, and other sciences," but no feminine aeconiplishmeuts ; lur 
only amusements being horsemanship and the chase. When a mere 
baby she had clapped her hands in delight at the thunder of artillcr.\-; 
and her subjects saw in lier the worthy daughter of a heroic father. 
She drew to her court the most distinguished scientific and litciary 
men, whose conversation interested her more than the duties of her 
kingdom. She lived 35 years after her abdication, chiefly at Konic 
where she founded an academy and made rich collections of muiluls 
and objects of art. She died in 1089, at the age of 63. 

2. Charles XII. was grandson of Charles X., the cousin and successor 
of Christina (§ 586). In his boyhood, his firmness amounted to obstiiuK-,\-, 
but he could always be influenced by an appeal to his honor. Whiii 
threatened at once, at his accession, by Russia, Poland, and Denmark, 
he surprised his senate by his energy, and re-assured it by the spirited 
declaration: "I have resolved never to wage an unjust war, nor ever to 
close a just one except by the destruction of my enemies." Determined 
to leave nothing to chance, he inured himself to severe fatigues and 
privations, and took part in all the exercises of his soldiers. He was 
aided by the sound advice of Count Piper, who had been his father's 
councilor of state, and became his own prime minister, acconipanying 
him in all his campaigns. Charles allied himself with England and 
Holland; and their fleets, combined with his own, covered his descent 
upon Denmark. The plan was so well laid that, without battle or blood- 
shed, the Iving of Denmark was forced to make large concessions for the 
safety of his capital, and undo the ml.sehief he had already done. 

Charles never saw his capital .(Stockholm) after 1700, though he reigned 
till 1718. Having driven Auiiustus from Poland, he followed him into 
Saxony, and, fixing his cam)) at liCipsic, received embassadors like a 
conqueror and sovereign prince. Augustus abdicated the throne of Po- 
land in favor of Stanislaus Leczinsky, whom Charles had placed upon 
it. After his defeat at Pultawa, the character of Charles appears less 
admirable. His long neglect of his kingdom left it at the mercy of its 
enemies. Augustus resumed the crown of Poland, and allied himself 
again with Russia and Denmark, while Stanislaus took refuge in France. 
All the treaties that Charles had made were broken; and, when envoys 
from the Swedish senate came to his camp in Turkey, imploring him 
to return and govern his kingdom, he insultingly replied, "I will send 
one of my old boots to govern you." In his satire on the "Vanity of 
Human Wishes," Dr. Johnson has written these lines: 

" On what foundation stands the warrior's pride, 
How just his hopes, let Swedish Charles decide. 
A frame of adamant, a soul of fire. 
No dangers fright him and no labors tire. . . . 
His fall was destined to a barren strand, 
A petty fortress and a dubious hand; 
He left the name at which the world grew pale 
To point a moral or adorn a tale." 

3. Peter's eldest son, Alexis, was a quiet and studious youth, with 
neither ambition nor taste for war, and averse to the reforms which his 
fatlier was Introducing. He was claimed by the party of "Old Rus- 
sians," as their leader in opposition to these reforms, and this drew 
upon him the violent wrath of his father, whose brutality, when roused, 
was scarcely less than that of Ivan the Terrible. During one of Peter's 
absences from Russia, Alexis took refuge at Vienna, and afterwards at 
Naples. It was a crime for any Russian noble to leave the empire with- 
out the czar's especial permission, and Peter chose to consider his .son's 
act as amounting to treason and rebellion. Alexis was persuaded to 
return, but was compelled to renounce his claims to the crown, and 
was soon afterwards tried on a charge of conspiracy and condemned to 
death. Early in 1718, he was found dead in his prison, and there is 



NOTES. 347 

little doubt that he had been poisoned by his father's order. He was 
28 years of age, and left an infant son, who, nine years later, became 
the Eraperor^Peter II. The only remaining son of Peter the Great died 
the following year, and, of all his children, only two daughters survived 
him. Oneofoiiem, Elizabetli, became empress in 1741 (^007). 

It was upon the conclusion of the Peace of Nystadt, in 1721, which 
ended his 21 years' war with Sweden, that tlie senate and synod con- 
ferred upon tlieir czar the new titles "Peter the Great, Emperor of 
all the Russias and Father of his Country." He wrote to his embassa- 
dor in Paris: "Apprenticeships usually end in seven years, ours has 
lasted thrice as long; but, thank God, it is at length brought to the de- 
sired termination." 

4. Catherine II, was of German birth, being a daughter of the Prince 
of Anhalt-Zerbst. The present division of Russia into "governments," 
dates from her reign; she also re-organized the army and civil service, 
"prniiiotrd agriculture, commerce, and education, and liberally patron- 
ized .sciLutific men." 

Her powerful favorite, Potemkin, was the conqueror of the Crimea, 
and, in 1787, the czarina visited her new provinces, to do him honor 
and to receive the homage of her Tartar subjects. Embarking at Kiev, 
she descended the Dnieper with a magniticent flotilla of 22 vessels, ac- 
companied by the exiled king Stanislaus of Poland, and by tlie Emper- 
or Joseph II. To give the new dominions an air of i^rosperity, Potem- 
kin had caused temporary villages to be erected along the route, and 
peopled with inhabitants brought from a distance and dressed in holi- 
day attire. Herds of cattle grazed in tlie intervening pastures; but as 
soon as the gay procession had passed, hamlets, people, and herds van- 
ished like a scene in a play.— Jl/eri/wcrt/ anO jSImlirn History. 

During the War of American IndeiJendeuce, ('atlierine rendered val- 
uable service to our cause by her proclamation of Armed Neutrality, 
in whicli slie was joined by Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Austria, Portu- 
gal, and the United Netherlands, 1780. 

5. The following description of Poland explains the temptation that 
kingdom offered to ambitious neighbors, and the ease with which their 
plans were carried out. Two thirds of the nation were serfs, whose ig- 
norance and squalid misery made them scarcely diflerent from brutes. 
By law, they were debarred from jjossessing property; if a crop failed, 
thousands died of starvation. The remaining one third consisted of 
three orders of nobility— with clergy, lawyers, citizens, and Jews. Of 
the magnates, or highest nobles, there were not more than 120, of whom 
four or five were the heads of powerful factions at war with each other. 
The middle class of nobles numbered 20,000 or 30,000 persons; and the 
lower nobility, more than a million. These were &r idle, ignorant, and 
often beggarly class of people, too proud to engage in any employment 
and too poor to exist in comfort without it, and yet the most insinnirt- 
cant of them could nullify the proceedings of a whole diet by his single 
veto. The citizens chiefly consisted of 40,000 or 50,00(1 artisans, who, scat- 
tered in wretched villages, were almost as completely subject to the 
oppressions of the nobles as the serfs themselves. Taxation fell only on 
Jews, artisans, and clergy. The heads of all departments of government 
were responsible to the diet and not to the king, and the diet was di- 
vided into hostile parties. With all these tendencies to chaos added to 
the right of the nobles to make war against the king (§587), it was ev- 
ident that a downfall was near. More than a hundred years before it 
took place, John Casimir, the last of the Vasa dynasty, clearly pre- 
dicted a dismemberment of Poland by Russia, Austria, and the House 
of Brandenburg. 

6. Kosciusko was one of the Polish heroes who aided in our War of 
Independence, having come to this country in 1777. He enjoyed the 
friendship of Washington, and fought with distinction in the battles on 
the Hudson and at Yorktown. After his release from his Russian i>rison, 
he re-visited the United States. A monument at West Point coinineni- 
orates his services. He refused to join in conspiracies against Russia, 
but wrote an eloquent letter to the Emperor Alexander I., entreating 
him to grant a free constitution to Poland. He died at Soleure, in 
Switzerland, 1817. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE BOURBONS IN FKANfJE. 



'ENRY IV. (A. 1). 1589-1610) 
the first of the royal House of 
]5ourbon, came to the throne 
in tlie midst of a civil war. 
Though the nearest heir to the 
monarchy, he was only eleventh 
cousin of the last king; and, as 
hereditary leader of the Hugue- 
nots, he encountered violent 
opposition from nearly all ad- 
herents of the old church. The 
League (^484) was strong in 
the support of Philip of Spain, 
who wanted the French crown 
for his daughter, and who had 
at his command the greatest 
general and the finest soldiery 
in the world. Nevertheless, 
Henry gained a brilliant victory over the forces of the 
League at Ivry, and his generous and gallant character 
drew many even of the Catholic nobles to his side. 

612. Paris was besieged by the royal forces, but Henr)' 

would not let his people starve. Food was carried in, 

and the city was thus enabled to await the arrival of the 

Spanish army. In 1593, Henry reconciled himself witFi 

(348J 




Prince of Condtf. 



HENRY IV. AND SULLY. 349 

the Roman Church, and soon obtained by management 
what he liad been unvviUing to gain by force. Being at 
length victorious over all his enemies, he pro- 
claimed universal toleration in the Edict of ' ■ '^^ ■ 
Nantes, and thus ended the religious wars of a third of a 
century. 

613. Aided by his great minister, Rosny, duke of Sully, 
Henry undertook to redeem France from the poverty and 
misery occasioned by so many years of misrule. Under 
their careful management, tillage, trade, and fine manu- 
factures soon began to flourish, and the people enjoyed a 
prosperity such as neither they nor their fathers could 
remember. A favorite scheme with Henry was the hum- 
bling of the House of Austria; and to this end he wished 
to league all Europe in a great Christian commonwealth,' 
in which each power should have only its due share of 
importance, and disputes should be settled by reason rather 
than by arms. As a first contribution toward this balance 
of power, he resigned the French claims upon Italy, which 
had been the cause of so many wars (§§404, 408, 445). 

614. But on the eve of his departure for the Nether- 
lands, the great king was assassinated by a frantic Jesuit. 
His queen, Marie de Medici, became regent for her son 
Louis Xni. (A. D. 1610-1643), who was then only nine 
years old. Herself an Italian, and ruled by Italian favorites, 
the queen wholly changed the policy of the government. 
She made a close alliance with Spain, marrying her son 
to the Spanish infanta, and her daughter to the crown- 
prince, afterwards Philip IV. The treasures, which Henry's 
good management had collected, were squandered upon 
her worthless favorites, while Sully retired from the council. 
When he was sixteen years of age, Louis took the govern- 
ment into his own hands, caused Concini, his mother's 
chief tool, to be put to death, and called some of his 
father's old councilors about him. 



35© MODERN HISTORY. 

615. The great Cardinal-minister, Richelieu,' was now 
rising into power. Like Henry IV. and Sully, he aimed 
to abate the proud ascendency of the Hapsburgs; and to 
this end he constantly aided the Protestants of England, 
Holland, and Germany, though, for political reasons, he 
made war against those of France. We have seen that 
the great Huguenot chiefs had made themselves almost 
independent during the wars of the League (§483). They 
coined money and executed justice like sovereign princes; 
indeed, the inefficiency of the last of the Valois had made 
it quite necessary that some strong hand should repress the 
robbery and violence that everywhere prevailed. France 
had almost fallen apart into the great duchies and counties 
that held its territories in the time of Hugh the Great 
(§338). 

616. Richelieu was far more a Frenchman than a Roman 
cardinal. He put down the feudal chiefs, but he had no 
disposition to persecute the Huguenots. He besieged and 

captured Rochelle, their stronghold, but he 

A. D. 1627-1628. ^11 1 • 1 r ■ /• 

confirmed the people m the free exercise of 
their religion, and renewed the Edict of Nantes. Other 
Huguenot towns submitted, and all fortresses not needed 
for the defense of the country against foreign enemies were 
ordered to be leveled with the ground. 

617. Not satisfied with ruling France, Richelieu took a 
leading part in the affairs of Europe. In the Thirty Years' 
War, France was an important actor, though secretly at 
first, through money and counsel supplied in equal measure 
to the Swedish king; and by the peace of Westphalia she 
was confirmed in the possession of Lorraine and Alsace, 
with several fortresses on the upper Rhine. But before 
this, in 1643, Richelieu and his king had both died, and 
Louis XIV., at the age of five years, had come to the 
throne, under the regency of his mother, Anne of Austria, 
and her chief minister. Cardinal Maz'arin. 



THE FRONDE. 351 



618. We come, now, to the greatest era of the French 
monarchy — a reign of seventy-two years (A. D. 1643- 
1715), during which France became the leader of the 
world in art, literature, and social refinement; while her 
king's ambition seemed almost to threaten his absolute 
and universal dominion. At its beginning, Conde^ was 
gaining brilliant victories over the Spanish forces in the 
Netherlands; but the expenses of war and a luxurious 
court soon drove the Parisians into a civil strife, called 
the Fivnde, which raged for several years. 

619. Conde thought his great services were slighted by 
the regent, and, after being driven from Paris, actually 
accepted a commission from the king of Spain to lead 
those armies which he had lately conquered. Mazarin, on 
the other hand, knew little, and cared less, concerning 
the laws of the land which he undertook to govern; while 
he disgusted the people by his greed for gold. He was 
several times dismissed, but soon recalled to office, while 
the young king'* and his mother, hiding in a suburb of 
Paris, often went cold and hungry, owing to the impossi- 
bility of collecting taxes. The Fronde was ended in 1652, 
and Mazarin was soon reinstated. 

620. The war in the Netherlands favored France, and 
in the treaty of the Pyrenees, which closed it, 

Spain gave up the proud preeminence which 
she had held ever since the days of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella. It was agreed that the French embassador should 
walk before the Spanish at every foreign court where both 
countries were represented — a precedence which Louis 
thought so important that he was ready to go to war upon 
its least infringement. 

621. Upon the death of Mazarin, in 1661, the king, who 
was now 23 years of age, announced to his council — 
"For the future, I shall be my own prime minister." 
He at once undertook the actual business of governing, 



352 MODERN HISTORY. 

and, though fond of pleasure, he thenceforth devoted many 
hours every day to the routine of affairs. He detected the 
frauds of the finance-minister, Fouquet, and condemned 
him to a dungeon for Hfe, while he put the honest Colbert^ 
in the vacant place. Colbert was able to lighten the taxes, 
and yet keep the king's treasury full, by encouraging all 
useful industries and, thus, multiplying sources of wealth. 

622. Louis had married a Spanish princess, and, upon 
her father's death, in 1665, he marched into the Nether- 
lands, declaring that the ten provinces, with Luxemburg 
and Franche Comte, belonged, of right, to her. This 
bold movement was checked by a triple alliance of En- 
gland, Holland, and Sweden, which forced Louis to sign 
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. His wrath was chiefly ex- 
cited by the little republic of Holland, which had wrested 
her own freedom from the iron hand of Spain, and now 
was able to protect her late oppressor. 

623. He first bribed England and Sweden to withdraw 
from the alliance; then, with his army of 200,000 men, he 
marched into the States, occupied Guelders, Utrecht, and 
Overyssel. and encamped within sight of Amsterdam. The 
Dutch stood alone against all the world, but the temper 
which had been proved in eighty years' war with Spain 
was not likely to yield to the groundless demands of 
France. The young Prince of Orange, now at the head 
of affairs, proposed that in the last extremity they should 
give back Holland to the sea, and, embarking with wives 
and children on their immense merchant fleet, seek new 
homes on the opposite side of the globe. 

624. The dykes were cut near Amsterdam; the ocean 
flowed over the fertile fields, and the fleet was able to 
surround and defend the capital. Spain and the empire 
soon sent aid to the States, and the war became general 
On the Rhine and in the Mediterranean, the French 
were still victorious; and when peace was finally made at 



LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE. 353 

Nimeguen, A. D. 1678, the glory of the "Grand Monarch" 
was at its height. In contempt of his treaty, he went on 
"reuniting" territories, on the pretense that they had once 
belonged to the dominion of the Franks I Among the rest, 
the free imperial city of Strasburg was thus appropriated, 
and the skill of Vauban, the famous military engineer, 
soon made it a fortress of surpassing strength. 

625. After the death of his Spanish queen, Louis mar- 
ried Madame de Maintenon, a woman of good sense, who 
wrought a great reformation in the court. Unhappily the 
king conceived the idea that he could atone for his sins 
by persecuting his Protestant subjects. The Huguenots, 
though no longer a political party (§§478, 615), numbered 
several millions, and were now the most useful and orderly 
class in France. Colbert had especially encouraged them 
on account of their skilled industries; but Colbert was 
now dead. The w^ar-minister, Louvois, by the king's order, 
quartered troops of dragoons in all the provinces, who 
abused the defenseless people at their will. 

626. This "dragonnade" was followed by the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes (§612). The churches of the 
Huguenots were ordered to be demolished, their ministers 
exiled, their children deprived of all instruction save that 
of the parish priest. Those who resisted the decree were 
shot without mercy. Half a million of the persecuted 
people found nxeans of escaping. Other countries, in 
Europe and America, gained what France lost, and most 
of them still bear marks of the improvements they owe to 
the exiled Huguenots. 

627. Perceiving the French king's blunder, his great 
L-nemy, the Prince of Orange, who was now king of En- 
gland (^553), stirred up a grand alliance against him. It 
comprised the emperor and the chief German states, with 
England, Holland, Sweden, Spain, and Savoy. The war, 
which soon broke out, was conducted with the greatest 

Hist. —23. 



354 MODERN HISTORY. 

brutality by the French on the Rhine. Louis ordered his 
generals to burn every village which they could not garri- 
son; and 100,000 people were thus made homeless in a itw 
weeks. His own subjects were suffering no less cruelly from 
starvation, owing to the ruinous wastes of war. At length, 
ministers from all the European nations met at Ryswick, 
in Holland, and, in 1697, concluded a treaty of peace. 

628. It was soon broken by the "War of the Spanish 
Succession," which for thirteen years taxed the energies 
of Europe, and extended all around the globe. Charles 
H. of Spain died in 1700, leaving no children, but be- 
queathing all his dominions to Philip of Anjou, grandson 
of Louis XIV. Now it happened that the Emperor Leo- 
pold was just as nearly related to the Spanish family as 
was the King of France (see Table, p. 283). In alliance 
with England and Holland, he proclaimed his second son, 
the archduke Charles, king of Spain. The English Duke 
of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy gained 
splendid victories over the French at Blenheim, Ramillies, 
Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. England became mistress of 
Gibraltar, the strongest fortress in the world, and of the 
island of Minorca, a second key to the Meciiterranean. 

629. "Louis the Great" was at length completely hum- 
bled. His people were starving, while the wealth and life- 
blood of his kingdom were poured out on foreign battle- 
fields. Year after year he begged for peace, offering larger 
and larger concessions, but the allies did not trust him, 
and the war went on. At length, in 1711, the emperor 
Joseph died, and his brother Charles was elected to suc- 
ceed him. The allies had gone to war to prevent Bourbon 
supremacy in Europe, but they had no mind to see the 
head of the Hapsburgs ruling Spain, Italy, and the empire, 
as in the days of Charles V. (^§424, 444). 

630. Eighty embassadors of the se\eral powers now met 
those of France at Utrecht, in Holland (.\. D. 1713), and. 



THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 355 

after more than a year's deliberation, articles of peace -were 
signed. The next year, a conference at Rastadt settled the 
points in dispute between France and the empire. Philip 
V. was recognized as king of Spain and the Indies, but 
all the Spanish possessions in Italy and the Netherlands 
were ceded to Charles VI. 

631. Louis XIV. died in 17 15, a weary old man, be- 
reaved of all his children and most of his grandchildren, 
and disappointed in that glory which had been the idol 
of his life. With his last breath he charged his great- 
grandson and successor to undo the mischiefs he himself 
had done, and be content with his rightful dominions. 

632. The age of Louis XIV. was the most brilliant period 
in French literature. The tragedies of Corneille and Racine, 
the comedies of Moliere, the "Letters" and "Thoughts" 
of Pascal, the fables of La Fontaine, the sermons of Bossuet, 
Bourdaloiie, Fenelon, and Massillon, are unsurpassed in 
their different kinds of excellence. The good Fenelon was 
tutor to the younger dauphin, and wrote the story of 
Telem'achus for the benefit of his pupil. 

633. Louis XV.'' (A. D. 1715-1774) was only five years 
old at his accession, and the regency was bestowed on the 
Duke of Orleans, a nephew of the late king. France was 
buried in debts, and the regent gladly consented to a 
scheme of Law, a Scotch banker, to pay the bondholders 
with paper money, representing shares in the "Mississippi 
Company." A fever for speculation now began to rage. 
The less people knew, the more they imagined concerning 
the wealth of the North American continent : lords, ladies, 
princes, and prelates crowded to buy shares, and the public 
debt vanished as by magic. But suddenly it was found 
that tiiere was no real money to meet these 

paper promises to pay, and thousands of fancied ^^^°' 

millionaires awoke to beggary. During the excitement, a 
company of emigrants founded the city of Ahiv Orleans, so 



356 MODERN HISTORY. 

named in honor of the regent, and this was the only last- 
ing result of the " Mississippi Scheme." 

634. Louis married Maria Leczinska, daughter of an 
exiled king of Poland, and, in 1733, undertook the "War 
of the Polish Succession," in a vain attempt to restore him 
to the throne. Still more important was the War of the 
Austrian Succession, in which all Europe was engaged, 
and which extended to the colonies in Asia and America. 
France gained nothing by it, while her already hopeless 
debt was increased by $250,000,000. Even the gay and 
thoughtless courtiers of Louis XV. felt that they were 
dancing on the edge of a precipice. The fair promise of 
the king's youth had been broken by selfish dissipation: 
the control of his kingdom rested now in the hands of the 
Marchioness de Pompadour, a bad though tolerably bright 
woman, who was persuaded by the flatteries of Maria 
Theresa to plunge that exhausted kingdom into a seven 
years' war with Prussia. The latter had England for an 
ally, while the three Bourbon kingdoms of France, Spain, 
and Naples united in a "Family Compact." 

635. The war began in America. France claimed the 
entire basins of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and 
attempted to guard them by a chain of forts reaching from 
Quebec to New Orleans. The kings of England, on the 
other hand, had given charters for lands running west- 
ward from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and collisions soon 
occurred on the head-waters of the Ohio." In America the 
contest was known as the French and Indian War, because 
the savage allies of the French often attacked English 
settlements, burned their villages, and either dragged away 
mothers and children tlirough the snow, or murdered all 
the settlers with their tomahawks. This horrid warfare 
was successful at first, but, in the end, the forts on the 
Ohio and St. Lawrence were taken by the English. In 
1760, General Wolfe, with a small British force, scaled the 



LOUIS XVI. OF FRANCE. 357 

rugged Heights of Abraham, and captured Quebec, the 
strongest natural fortress on the western continent. 

636. The treaty of Paris, 1763, left all boundaries in 
Europe unchanged, but deprived France of her whole 
American dominion. The northern part became British 
America, while the Mississippi Valley was ceded to Spain, 
to pay for her losses by the Family Compact. 

637. Louis XV. died in 1774, leaving a starving people 
and a treasury in hopeless ruin. His grandson, Louis 
XVL, was a young man of the best intentions, but of no 
great energy of mind or will. He had married the Austrian 
archduchess, Marie Antoinette,* who, though beautiful and 
kind-hearted, was not a favorite with the people. She was 
known to share the despotic temper of the Hapsburgs, 
and to urge her husband to arbitrary measures. 

638. Great sympathy was felt in France for the Ameri- 
cans in their struggle for independence (§§650-652), and 
the king was reluctantly compelled to declare 

. r. -n • • T 1 A. D. 1778. 

war agamst Great -Britain. It was a dangerous 
step, for, great as were the grievances of the Americans, 
the French, at home, had infinitely more to complain of, 
and naturally began to think of asserting tlicir rights. 

639. Several finance-ministers^ tried, in turn, to diminish 
the national debt, and relieve the general poverty; but 
abuses were too deeply rooted in the constitution of the 
state. The nobles and clergy, who owned two-thirds of 
all the land in France, paid no taxes; and so the whole 
burden of the government rested on those who had no 
voice in making or executing the laws. At length, A. D. 
1789, the States-general were called, for the first time in 
175 years, and with their meeting, at Versailles, the great 
French Revolution may be said to have begun. 

Read Dyer's Modern Europe; Martin's History of France; Weiss's 
History of the French Refugees; Bancroft's History of the United 
States. 



358 



MODERN HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. The great Confederation planned by Henry was to consist of fifteen 
states, in tliree groups: (1) Six Elective Monarchies: the Empire, the States 
of the Church, Venice, Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland; (2) Six Heredi- 
tary Monarcliies: France, Spain, Ureal Britain, Denmark, Sweden, and 
Lorabardy — the last to be formed of the two duchies of S;ivoy and Mi- 
lan; (H) Tliree Federal Republics: Switzerland, the Netherlands, and a 
Confcdcratidn of Italian states. The Czar of Muscovy — afterwards to 
becDiiie Eiiiiicror of Itussia (^589, 597), was considered as belonging rather 
to Asia tlian Europe, Ijut he could be admitted to the Commonwealth 
if he desired it. His own age and later ones [)oured great contempt on 
what they called the visionary sctiemes of Henry IV.; but it neverthe- 
less contained the essential principle of international law; and the 
more human reason prevails over brutal impulses, the nearer the world 
will come to a realization of the spirit of his plan. 

Heni-y IV. was, of all their monarchs, the greatest favorite with the 
Frencli. His generous confidence and forgetfulness of injuries soon 
quieted tlie dissensions in his kingdom; his valor and his gay good 
humor made him tlie idol of liis armies. At Ivry he prefaced the 
word of comniand with this brief address: "Fellow-soldiers, you are 
Frenchmen; behold the enemy! II you lose sight of your ensigns, fol- 
low my plume; you will always find it on the high road to honor!" 
Macauiaj' has commemorated tlie incident in a spirited ballad. It was 
by the treaty of Vervins in 1598, that Henry made peace with Spain. 
Philip II., aged, infirm, and straitened in resources (§525), restored to 
France all his conquests excepting the fortress of Cambray. 

2. Armand Jean du Plessis, afterwards Cardinal Richelieu, was the 
ablest and most celibrated of French prime ministers. At the early 
age of 22 he ohtaiiicd the bishopric of Lucon, chiefly by his address and 
ready wit in asking the Pope for it, though it had been for some time 
in his family. In 1(311, he entered the service of Marie de' Medici, and 
used his influence in making peace between her and lier son. In 1622, 
he became cardinal, and in 1621 a member of the royal council, in which 
he speedily rose to the head. His policy, clearly conceived and firmly 
pursued, aroused tlie bitter opposition of the Queen -mother, but she 
was exiled in 1630, and from that time till his death, Richelieu ruled 
France. In 1635 he founded the French Academy of 40 members, the 
most dignified and illustrious of literary institutions — the supreme 
authority in all that relates to the French language and literature. Al- 
most the only weakness of the great statesman was his fancying him- 
self a poet. Richelieu died in December, 1642, five months before the 
king, Louis XIII. 

3. For the connection of Conde with tlie Bourbons see §478 and note. 

4. Louis XIV., called the Great, was the eldest son of Louis XIII. 
and Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip HI. of Spain. The hardships 
which he sutt'ered in his childhood made him only the more determined 
to use his power absolutely when he should obtain it. The war of the 
Kronde had for its chief mover the Cardinal de Retz, a restless and 
ambitious adventurer; but many great nobles and even fine ladies of 
the court took an active part in it. Most important of the latter was 
Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the king's own cousin, sometimes called 
"the Great Mademoiselle," and the richest heiress in France. Slie gained 
a battle for tlie Prince of Cond6 by directing the cannon of the Bastille 
with her own hands against the forces of the king. In fulfillment of 
the Treaty of the Pyrenees, Louis XIV. married his cousin, Maria Theresa, 
daughter of Philip IV. of Spain. 

5. Jean Baptists Colbert was born at Rheims, 1619, in comparatively 
humble circumstances. His early travels made him acquainted with 
many parts of Fiance, and he studied especially the state of trade and 
the menns by which it could he improved. Cardinal Mazarin, who had 
perceived his merits and employed him in the care of his own estates, 
recommendeil him to the cunHdeiice of Louis XIV.; and, as controller 
general of finances, he became the " founder of commerce and protector 



NOTES. 359 

of all the arts." He either originated or greatly extended the manufac- 
tures of glass, silk, and woolens; establislied a Chamber of Commerce, 
connected tlae Mediterranean witli the Atlantic by the Canal of Langue- 
doc; chartered companies for trade with the East and West Indies, and 
phmted colonies in Canada. As minister of marine, lie established great 
naval arsenals at Toulon, Brest, Havre, and Dunkirlj, and kept the 
fleets in the highest state of etticiency. Himself a member of the French 
Academy, he founded two oUiers, of Inscriptions and of Sciences, as well 
as an Astronomical Observatory. He died in office, 1683. 

6. Louis XV. is said to liave been remarkable in his childhood for 
purity and loveliness. But the court of the regent was a scene of 
scandalous corruption, and the character of the young king was not 
strong enougli to withstand evil influences. In 1723, though only 13 
years old, he was declared of age, and, as the Regent d' Orleans died 
about the same time, the Duke of Bourbon became prime minister. 
Three years later, he was succeeded by the excellent Cardinal Fleury, 
who had been Louis's preceptor and possessed his entire confidence. 
Under liis prudent and peaceful management, some degree of order and 
prosperity returned to France. Still the decline of the monarchy was 
so manifest, that there was a standing jest at court: "After us, the Del- 
uge." Cardinal Fleury died in 1743, and tlie king, in imitntion of his 
predecessor, resolved to be his own prime minister (g621). But his de- 
votion to business lasted only Ave years, and, in 1748, abandoning him- 
self to dissipation, lie left the interests of his people to the reckless 
hands of whoever might- be the court favorite of the hour. 

The disasters of the Seven Years' War, followed by greatly increased 
taxation, destroyed the king's popularity, and, to crown all, he increased 
his private fortune by speculating in grain and in government bonds, 
thus enriching himself by the starvation of his people. In his youth 
he had been called " Louis the Well Beloved," but liis successor now 
began to be called " Louis the Desired." 

7. It was in the beginning of this contest that Washington, tlien 21 
years of age, first distinguished himself by bearing a message from Gov. 
Dinwiddle, of Virginia, to the French commandant on tlie Alleghany. 
The next year he led a party against Fort du Q,uesne (kane), now Pitts- 
burg; but, being insufficiently supported by tlie colonies, he had to re- 
tire, leaving tlie whole Ohio basin four years longer to the French. 

8. Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa (§g 602-605, 609), and 
the Emperor Francis I. was only fifteen years of age when her marriage 
with the dauphin placed her at the head of the brilliant society of Paris. 
The liveliness and freedom of her manners offended the stately tradi- 
tions of royal etiquette, and it is even said that her French tutor had 
insi)ired her with contempt for the manners of her future subjects, that 
he might increase his own importance. The arbitrary temper which 
slie had inherited from lier mother liad not time to be corrected by 
experience before the storm of the Revolution burst upon her. But 
whatever were her youthful mistakes, she met adversity witli noble 
firmness, thinking only of her husband and children, and command- 
ing some respect even from her brutal jailors by her firm and queenly 
dignity. See gg 680-68.5. 

9. The most popular of these was Jacques Necker, a wealthy Swiss 
banker, wlio, in 1777, became director-general of French finances. He 
first published an annual account of the revenue and expenses of the 
government, and thus inspired confidence, while by order and economy 
he was able to diininish the taxes. Though in great favor witli the 
people, he had many enemies at court, and, 1781, he resigned liis office 
and retired to Switzerland. His recall, in 1788, was followed by an im- 
mediate rise of 30 per cent in tlie public funds. In 1789, a note from the 
king ordered him to leave the kingdom privately, and it was the rage 
of the mob at his dismissal that led to tlie storming of the Bastille 
(§680). Louis was forced to recall Necker, who re-entered Paris ten days 
after his departure, and was received with unbounded enthusiasm. Tlie 
next year he resigned his office and passed the rest of his life in studi- 
ous retirement at Coppet, in Switzerland. Mme. de Stael, the brilliant 
authoress, was his daughter. 



CHAPTER XI. 

GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

^EORGE LEWIS, elector of Han- 
over,* became king of England, 
in 1 7 14, by an act of Parliament, 
which excluded all papists from 
the throne. He naturally favored 
the Whigs, to whom he owed his 
crown ;' while the Tories, or Jaco- 
bites, as they were now called, in- 
clined to Prince James (§§552, 
555), whom his sister, Queen Anne, 
would gladly have named as her 
successor. The prince invaded Scot- 
land, with a small French force, the 
next year, but without success; and, 
after the death of Louis XIV., the 
Regent (§633) made a close alli- 
ance with England, Holland, and 
the Empire, to keep the peace of 
Europe. The Stuarts, driven from France, kept up a 
cheerless show of royalty in their poverty-stricken court 
at Rome. 




A Grenadier. 



*See Table, p. 241. The electorate of Hanover was conferred, in 
1692, on the father of George L, a duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, 
who married a daughter of Frederic, elector-palatine, and the En- 
glish princess, Elizabeth. The House of Brunswick was one of the 
oldest and most ]iowerful in flerman)', being a branch of the Guelf 
family (§363), whose estates, in the twelfth century, extended from' 
the Danube to the Baltic. 
(360) 



HANOVERIANS AND STUARTS. 361 



641. George I. felt and acted more as a German prince 
than as a British king, much to the displeasure of his new 
subjects. His reign was marked by many wild specula- 
tions in finance, among them the "South Sea Bubble," 
which closely resembled the Mississippi scheme in France 
(§633). When the crash came, bringing poverty to a 
multitude of paper-millionaires, a strong reaction set in, and 
Robert Walpole,^ a sensible country squire, who had opposed 
the scheme from the first, was placed at the head of the 
government, a position which he held twenty-one years. 

642. George I. died in Hanover, 1727, and his son, 
George H., became king. Under Walpole's thrifty ad- 
ministration, the country rapidly advanced in industry 
and wealth. In the "War of the Austrian Succession" 
(§§602-605), England was the steadfast friend of Maria 
Theresa. The king and his son were both present in the 
battle of Dettingen, 1743, by which the French were driven 
out of northern Germany. 

643. The last attempt of the Stuarts to regain the Brit- 
ish throne was led by the "Young Pretender," Charles 
Edward, son of James Francis, who invaded Scotland in 

1745. His brave and gallant bearing attracted many young 
Scots : Edinburgh was taken by surprise, and a grand ball 
was given at the palace in honor of King James the 
Eighth. A substantial victory, at Prestonpans, gave the 
Pretender the cannon which he needed ; the French 
government, now believing in his certain success, sent 
arms and money, and he boldly invaded England. But 
the English, however little they loved their dull German 
king, dearly loved the prosperity which they had begun to 
enjoy, and felt no obligation to risk all for the Stuarts. 
Few joined the prince, while the superior forces of the 
Hanoverians began to close around him, and he retreated 
to Scotland. He was finally defeated at Culloden, in 

1746, and escaped beyond the seas. 



362 MODERN HISTORY. 

644. Several colonies were founded during this reign. 
In honor of the king, Gen. Oglethorpe^ gave the iiame of 
Georgia to his settlement on the Savannah River, which 
he had planted chiefly to provide homes for orphans, and 
for refugees for conscience' sake. The efforts of the Ohio 
Company to settle lands west of the AUeghanies, led to a 
collision with the French. In an attempt to capture Fort 
Duquesne, Gen. Braddock and his British regulars were 
defeated by Indians, and only saved from utter destruc- 
tion by the cool bravery of Washington. The fort was 
subsequently abandoned by the French, and the English 
renamed it Fort Pitt., in honor of the firm friend of 
America, William Pitt. The next year forts Niagara and 
Ticonderoga, and the yet more important fortress of 
Quebec, were also taken by the British. 

645. These colonial contests were part of the Seven 
Years' War, to which — or rather to the energetic policy 
of Mr. Pitt*' — three great empires may trace their rise. 
British conquests from the French in Hindustan laid the 
foundations of the vast Indian Empire; the share taken 
by the thirteen American colonies in the war led to the 
independence of the United States ; and, by enabling 
Prussia at a most critical moment to withstand the hos- 
tility of all continental Europe, the rise of the present 
German Empire may have been rendered possible. (§ 606). 

646. George III. (A. D. 1760- 1820) succeeded his 
grandfather while the Seven Years' War was in progress. 
It was closed by the treaty of Paris, 1763, in which 
France ceded to England all that is now British America, 
while Spain gave up Florida in exchange for Havana 
and the Philippine Islands, which had been taken by the 
English. 

647. The early years of this reign were marked by a 
wonderful increase in the power of newspapers. John 
Wilkes, in his journal, the Noiih Briton, attacked the 



REIGN OF GEORGE III. id^ 

policy of the government ; and the king's favorite minister, 
the Earl of Bute, was compelled to resign. Wilkes was 
imprisoned for his boldness ; but this despotic action only 
brought more clearly to light the need of a free press for 
the security of a free government ; and, thus, an important 
step in constitutional liberty was gained. The London Times 
was established January i, 1788. 

648. The king, though well-meaning, was obstinate and 
narrow-minded; and his subjects, both at home and in the 
colonies, had to look well to their rights. The French 
and Indian War had added immensely to British posses- 
sions, but it had also added to the public debt; and it 
was now proposed to tax the three kingdoms and the 
colonies alike to meet the expense. This was quite right 
as far as the British people at home were concerned, for 
the tax was levied by their own representatives ; but the 
colonists had no seats in Parliament ; and as Englishmen 
they claimed their rights, conceded as long ago as the 
reign of Edward 1., in refusing to pay a tax which they 
had no share in imposing. 

649. Pitt, the Great Commoner, declared, in parliament, 
that the colonists were right ; but the king hated Pitt, 
whose ill-health, moreover, withdrew him, about this time, 
from public affairs, so that the Americans lost this pow- 
erful friend at court. Lord North's ministry 
repealed all taxes, excepting that of three pence 

a pound upon tea. But it was the principle, not the 
pence, that the colonists were contending for. Most of 
the tea-ships were sent back to England with their cargoes 
untouched ; while the Bostonians, in their excitement, dis- 
charged several shiploads into their harbor. 

650. The American Revolution. — A British army 
was now sent over, and the war began with a skirmish 
at Lexington, Massachusetts, April, 1775, i^"" which the 
"red-coats" were put to flight. In the Battle of Bunker 



364 MODERN HISTORY. 

Hill, on the other hand, the Americans were dislodged 
from their position ; but their valiant resistance had amazed 
their opponents, and commanded new respect for colonial 
character. A congress of all the colonies had now met in 
Philadelphia to take measures for the common defense ; 
and George Washington became general-in-chief of the 
American forces. 

651. The colonists had desired nothing more than their 
just rights as British subjects, but the king's harshness 
compelled them to go farther, and, in July, 1776, the 
Declaration of Independence was signed at Philadelphia. 
During that summer the British, under Lord Howe, cap- 
tured New York, which they kept until the end of the 
war. The next year Philadelphia, too, fell into their 
hands, though Washington earnestly tried to save it by 
the battle of the Brandywine. The winter which followed 
was the hardest period of all to the colonists; and the 
struggle of the weakest nation in the world against the 
strongest seemed utterly desperate. 

652. Nevertheless, the tide had already turned in favor 
of American independence. Burgoyne, descending with a 
fresh army from Canada to join Lord Howe, was defeated 

near Saratoga and surrendered his whole 

October, 1777. • 1 • 1 , , / - 

arm)- with its cannon and treasures to Gen- 
eral Gates. France, Spain, and Holland soon made 
friendly treaties with the United States, and the fleets of 
all three nations attacked British ships and setdements in 
all parts of the globe. The main actions of the following 
years were in the southern states; and, in October. 1781, 
the war was virtually ended by the surrender of Lord 
Cornwallis, with his whole command, at Yorktown, in 
Virginia. In September, 1783, a treaty of peace was 
signed at Versailles, by which George III. acknowledged 
the independence of his late colonies, now the United 
States of America. 



THE PRINCE REGENT. 365 

653. England took a leading part in the wars following 
the French Revolution, but these will be described in 
another connection (Ch. XIII). It is no wonder that the 
excitements and responsibilities of that eventful time over- 
came the mind of the king. After reigning 

fifty years he became insane, and the regency 
of the kingdom was committed to his son, who was after- 
wards King George the Fourth. 

654. The wars of the French Revolution burdened 
Great Britain with a debt of four thousand millions of 
dollars, which pressed, most heavily, upon the working 
classes. At the same time the use of steam in manufac- 
tures threw thousands of worthy people out of employ- 
ment, while the price of food was raised by the Corn 
Laws, which prohibited the importation of grain. For 
many years the government had a difficult task in dealing 
with the popular discontent under these miseries, which it 
could not at once remove. 

655. George III. died in 1820, and the Prince Regent 
became kmg. His only child, the Princess Charlotte, was 
already dead, and his ill-treated wife, Caroline of Bruns- 
wick, did not long survive his accession. George IV. was 
a selfish and profligate king, spending the money of his 
starving people on the most frivolous amusements. For- 
tunately, the government really rested in better hands 
than his. Some liberal measures were carried by his 
ministers; notably, that of "Catholic Emancipation," 
removing disabilities which had existed ever since the 
time of Charles II. (§544). There was no longer any 
danger of the Pope's ruling England ; and it was seen 
to be wrong that millions of people in Ireland should 
l)e unrepresented in Parliament merely on account of their 
religious I)elief. 

656. Many Englishmen, of whom Lord Byron was most 
distinguished, took part in the Greek revolution, which 



366 MODERN HISTORY. 

delivered the land of Pericles and Plato, after four hun- 
dred years' degrading servitude to the Turks. The gov- 
ernment at last followed their lead, and, in alliance with 
France and Russia, defeated the Turkish fleet in the Bay 
of Navarino (§722). 

657. In 1830, William IV. "^ succeeded his brother. His 
seven years' reign is noted as the period of long-needed 
j)arliamentary reform. Since the application of steam to 
machinery, many towns had grown immensely in wealth 
and population, but had no voice in the government to pro- 
tect their rights ; while some ancient boroughs, once im- 
portant, had lost all or nearly all their inhabitants, but, 
as they were entitled to representation, their seats in par- 
liament were filled by the appointment of some great 
landed proprietor, who thus had far more power than was 
just. In 1832, fifty-six of these "pocket-boroughs" were 
abolished, and one hundred and forty-three seats were 
distributed among the great towns, while the right to vote 
was extended to every man who owned property or paid 
rent to a certain small amount, 

658. One of the first acts of the reformed Parliament 
abolished slavery in all the British colonies. Wilberforce 
and others had succeeded, in 1807, in putting an end to 
the slave trade. Improvement was also made in the Poor 
Laws, so that a laborer could seek employment beyond the 
limits of the parish in which he was born. 

659. In 1837, the crown of Great Britain and Ireland 
passed to Victoria,^ daughter of the duke of Kent, while 
that of Hanover vvas inherited by her father's younger 
brother (see Table, p. 283). Many troubles beset the three 
kingdoms and their dependencies. Canada was in revolt, 
Jamaica nearly so, a commercial war was on the eve of 
breaking out with China, and the discontent at home was 
greater than ever, owing to scanty harvests and the high 
price of food. Riotous meetings were held near the great 



I 



I 



THE CRIMEAN WAR. 367 

towns, demanding a repeal of the Corn Laws, and some 
radical changes in the government. 

660. The cold, wet summer of 1845 injured the grain 
crop all over Europe and blighted the potato in Ireland. 
A terrible famine was the consecjuence, carrying off thou- 
sands of the Irish peasantry and leaving whole parishes 
uninhabited. In 1846, parliament repealed all duties upon 
articles of food, and gradually the discontent died away 
in a better condition of the people. 

661. In 1840, the queen married Prince Albert'of Saxe- 
Coburg-Gotha, a truly "blameless prince," who, seeking 
neither honors nor power for himself, devoted his rare 
talents to promoting the success and happiness of her 
reign. Among other enterprises which he aided, was the 
first "World's Fair," for which a "Crystal Palace" was 
erected in Hyde Park, London, A. D. 185 1. 

662. Her alliance with the new French Empire (§§738, 
739) plunged England into the Crimean War, the object 
of which was to protect Turkey against the aggressions of 
the Czar Nicholas.* The Turks had a prophecy that their 
dominion in Europe was to fall just four hundred years 
from the time of its establishment (§379). When that 
year of fate arrived, the Czar, who coveted 
Constantinople, proposed to the British gov- ' "' 
ernment to share the spoils by seizing Egypt and Crete. 
This was refused, and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, English 
ambassador at Constantinople — whom the Czar spitefully 
called the "English Sultan" from his influence over the 
Turks — was warned to watch th'= Russian movements. 

663. Nicholas soon marched an army to the lower 
Danube, and seized the provinces of Moldavia and Wal- 
lachia. The Sultan declared war, and his general, Omar 
Pasha, gained several brilliant victories over the invaders, 
forcing them at length to give up the disputed provinces. 



368 MODERN HISTORY. 

To make it sure that the peace of Europe would not be 
disturbed again in the same way, the French and Enghsh 
fleets moved up the Black Sea and besieged 
'^''' ^ ^^' the fortress of Sevastopol in the Crimean pe- 
ninsula. For nearly a year its strong defenses resisted all 
attempts to reduce them, though the Russians were re- 
pulsed at Balaklava and signally defeated at Inkermann. 
The British soldiers suffered more from cold and hunger, 
owing to inefficient management, than from the necessary 
hardships of war; but the sick were kindly and skillfully 
cared for by Florence Nightingale and her noble band of 
volunteer nurses — ladies who had left the comfort of Eng- 
lish homes for a pilgrimage of charity to this Tartar wil- 
derness, and whose only reward was the happiness of 
relieving pain. 

664. The Czar died in March, 1855; and his son, Alex- 
ander II., a prince of more moderate views, came to the 
throne. Lord Palmerston was now at the head of the 
British ministry, and new energy appeared in the move- 
ments of the allies. A fleet, cruising in the Sea of Azof, 
destroyed immense magazines of grain, which were to have 
fed the garrison of Sevastopol ; while another, penetrating 
the Baltic, shut up the Russian ships in their harbor of 
Cronstadt. At last the Redan and the Malakoff, two great 
forts which guarded the south side of Sevastopol, were 
taken by storm. The Russians sunk their fleet -in the 
harbor, set fire to the town, and retired to the north forts. 

665. The Czar was now ready for peace, and in March, 
1856, a treaty was signed at Paris. The Black Sea was 
thrown open to the commerce of all nations, but no war- 
ships, either Turkish or Russian, were pennitted to enter 
it. The provinces on the lower Danube were united in 
the almost independent sovereignty of Roumania, free to 
regulate all matters of religion and law for themsehes, 
and to choose their own i)rince with the formal consent 



DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE ITL 369 

of the Sultan. Christians in Turkey — who outnumbered 
rhe Mohammedans almost six to one — were declared to 
be under the protection of the great Christian ■ Powers. 

Point out Trafalgar. Navarino. Sevastopol. What seas were 
traversed by the allied fleets in 1854? Where is Cronstadt ? 
Roumania ? 

Read Chapter X of Green's "Short History;" Macaulay's History 
of England and Essays on Clive and Hastings; Bancroft's History of 
the United States, volumes relating to the French and Indian and 
Revolutionary \\'ars. 



FAMILY OF GEORGE HI. 
George III. 



George IV. William IV. Edward, D. of Kent, Ernest Augustus, 

I died, 1820. K. of Hanover. 

Charlotte, died, 1817. I 

Victoria. 



THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 

?628. 
Philip III. — g 525. 



1 I 

Anne in. Louis XJll. Philif IV. m Eliz. Mary Anne m. FERDINAND III. 

I I of France. ' 

I i \ i i ■ 
Louis X/l'. in. Maria Theresa. Ch.arles II. Marg't. Theresa m. LEOPOLD I., 

I who m 

Louis, Dauphin 2d Mary Anne of Neuberg. 



Louis. Philip V—g 630. JOSEPH I. CHARLES VI. 



N'afhi's of Emperors are in large eapitals. Kings of Spain, in small 
capital: -nd Kings of France, in italics. 



4ist. — 24. 



37° MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. Lecky, in his "History of England in tlie XVIII. Century," no- 
tices the "great multitude ot disputed titles" in Europe as having an 
important etTect upon the popular views concerning inonarchy. "The 
throne of England was disputed between the House of Hanover and 
the House of Stuart. Tlie Spanish throne was disputed between Philip 
V. and the emperor. In Italy, . . . the successions of Tuscany and 
Parma were disputed by the emperor and Spanish Q,ueeu. In Poland, 
the rival claims of Stanislaus, who was supported by Charles XII., and 
of Augustus (g594), who was supported by Peter tlie Great, were, during 
many years, contested by arms. In France, the title of the young king 
was, indeed, undisputed, but his fragile constitution made men look 
forward to his speedy death, and parties were already forming in sup- 
port of the rival claims of the regent and tlie kin^ df Spain. Among 
the causes which were lowering the position of nionarcliy in Europe 
in the Eighteenth C'entury, the multiplication of tliesf disputetl titles 
deserves a prominent place. They shook the reverence for the throne; 
they destroyed the mystic sanctity that surrounded it; they brought 
the supreme authority of the nation into the arena of controversy. In 
England, since the period of the Restoration (^544), the doctrine of the 
divme right of kings, and of the absolute criminality of all rebellion, 
was, as we have seen, a fundamental tenet, not only of the Tory party, 
but also of the Estaljlished Church. But, from the accession of George 
I. it began rapidly to decline. The enthronement of the new dynasty 
had, for a time at least, solved the doubtful question of the succession 
according to the principles of the Revolution." 

2. J.R.Green, in "A Short History of the English People," says 
that a complete transfer of political power from the House of Lords 
to the House of Commons, was marked by " the series of ' Great Com- 
moners,' who, from this time, became tlie rulers of England. ... Of 
these Great Commoners, Robert \Vali)()le was the first. Born in 1676, he 
entered Parliament two years before William's lieatli, as a young Nor- 
folk land owner of fair fortune, with the tastes and air of the class from 
which he .sprang. . . . He was ignorant of books; he 'loved neither 
writing nor reading,' and if he had a taste for art, his real love was for 
the table, the bottle, and the chase. . . . Walpole was the first minis- 
ter— it has been finely said— 'who gave our government that charac- 
ter of lenity which it has since generally deserved.' No man was ever 
more fiercely attacked by speakers and writers, but he brouglit in no 
'gagging act' for tlie press, and though the lives of most of his assailants 
were in his hands through their intrigues with the Pretendei-, he made 
no use of his power over them. . . . Walpole was not only tlie first 
English Peace Minister; he was the first English minister who was a 
great linancier, and who regarded the development of national wealth 
and the adjustment of national buixlens as the business of a statesman. 
His time of jjower was a time of great material prosperity. . . . But 
if Walpole's aims were wise and statesnianlilce, lie was unscrupulous in 
the means by wbicb lie realized them. Per.sonally, lie was free from 
corruption; and he is perhaps the first great Englisli statesman who 
left ofBce poorer than when he entered it. But he was certainly the 
first who made parliamentary corruption a regular part of his sy.stem of 
government. ... A vote was too valuable to be given without recom- 
pen.se. Parliamentary support had to be bought by places, pensions, 
and bribes in hard cash." 

3. James Edward Oglethorpe was one of the most remarkable men 
in tlie English society of his day. In youth he served under Marlbor- 
ough and Prince Eugene in Germany. Returning to England, he be- 
came interested in philanthropic efforts, chiefly in behalf of orplians 
and poor debtors, and obtained from the king a large grant of American 
lands "in trust for the poor." He came over with thetirst settlers :ui<l 
lived for a year in a tent_, where he afterwards laid out tlie streets of^' 
Savannah. "During the War of Austrian Succession, he had to defencJ 
his colony against the neighboring Spaniards. He himself invaded 
Florida, and repulsed au invasion of his own territory. Returning to 



NOTES. 371 

England in 1743, he continued for forty years to be a warm friend of 
America. He died at great age in 1785. 

4. William Pitt, the Elder, was born in Cornwall iu 1708, educated 
at Eton and Oxford, and entered Parliament in 173.5. In 1746, he received 
what was considered the most lucrative office iu the gift of the govern- 
ment, that of paymaster of the forces. "But its profits were of an illicit 
kind, and, poor as he was, Pitt refused to accept one farthing beyond 
his salary." In 17.57, he became Secretary of State, and the energetic 
support which he gave Frederic II. of Prussia, turned the tide of the 
Seven Years' War (^ (i06). In the debates on taxation which followed 
tills war, Pitt constantly denied the riglit of Parliament to lay burdens 
upon the colonies, condemning the Stamp Act, in one of his most elo- 
quent speeches. After the War of American Independence had begun, 
he used his most fiery clnquence in denouncing the employment of 
savages to fight against the colonists. Still he opposed tlic aclvnowledg- 
ment of our independence, and his s|>eech to this effect was the last 
effort of his life. Lord Kroiigliamsays of I'itt: "He is the person to whom 
every one would at once i>oint if asked to name the most successful 
statesman and most brilliant f)rator that his country ever produced." 
Pitt sacrifleed much of his popularity by accepting "a peerage in 17(j(j, 
becoming the first Earl of Chatham. He died in 1778. 

5. William IV., the third son of George III., was born in London, 
17(J5. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1779, and spent a winter 
iu New York during the occupation of that city by the British (g 651). 

6. Queen Victoria was born at Kensington Palace, May 24, 1819. She 
was carefully educated under the care of her nrother and the Duchess 
of Northumberland, and is said to have first discovei'ed her title to the 
crown from her reading of history when about thirteen years of age. 
Surprised and moved by this sudden perception of the responsibilities 
that awaited her, she laid her hand in that of her governess and 
cxclaiuKMl, "I will try to be good!" In her simple and quiet life, 
exempt from the flatteries of courts, she had learned to be " brave, self- 
reliant, and .systematic. Prudence and economy had been taught her 
as though she had been born to be poor." 

7. Prince Albert was descended from the elder or ducal Saxon line, 
dtsccnihd from the electors Frederic the Wise and John the Steadfast, 
lirotictors of lAither, while the royal House of Saxony have for their 
founder tliat Duke Maurice (H''!*) who supplanted his cousin. 

8. Nicholas I. was the third son of the Erajjeror Paul I., and brother 
of Alexander I. (i^703), whom he succeeded in 182.5. A dangerous revolt 
broke out among' the troops at St. Petersburg immediately on his acces- 
sion, for there were already secret societies iu Russia which were plot- 
ting radical changes in the government. Many nobles were exiled to 
Siberia for their share in this plot, and the severity used in its suppression 
oidy confirmed the arbitrary temper of Nicholas. This was equally 
shown against the Poles, who, in 18;!(), made a desperate but heroic ef- 
fort to regain their lost independence, and in the intervention of Nich- 
olas on the side of Austria in the Hungarian Revolution (^732) of 1848 
and '49. In both cases the movement toward freedom was sternly 
checked, though later events, in the war of 1866, brought to the Hun- 
garians most of the constitutional changes they desired. 

The cares inseparable from the despotic control of so vast an empire, 
aggravated by his vexation at the reverses of the Crimean War, Wore 
out at last even the iron frame of Nicholas, and he died during the 
siege of Sebastopol. 

9. Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, one of the most pop- 
ular of English statesmen, was born 1784, and died 1865. His Irish peer- 
age gave him no place in the E)nglish House of Lords, but he was 
fifty years a member of the Commons, where his business-like energy 
and skill in debate found their most appropriate field. As minister for 
Foreign Affairs, Palmerston was among the first to recognize the French 
Republic, and he even approved the steps by which Napoleon III. 
gained supreme power. 



CHAPTER XII. 



BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE EAST. 




Palanquin Bearers in India. 

I OR a hundred years from its foundation, the Enghsh 
East India Company confined itself to trade — building a 
few forts and warehouses on lands given it by the Mogul 
emperors. After the time of Aurungzebe, who died in 
1707, the empire founded by Baber (^377) rapidly de- 
clined; and, though a Great Mogul still reigned in his 
jeweled palace at Delhi, the twenty-one native princes of 
the peninsula paid him little respect and still less obedi- 
ence, but spent their time in quarreling among themselves 
and oppressing their subjects. 

667. By helping the weaker party in these disputes, the 
Company began to acquire power and wealth, which were 
often increased by buying the sovereignty of some bank- 

(372j 



CLIVE AND HASTINGS. 373 



nipt nizam or rajali. Conciuests from the French and 
their Hindu allies, during the Seven Years' War (ij;645), 
laid the foundation of the British Indian Empire. In 
1756, Sura'jah Dow'lah, the native viceroy of Bengal, cap- 
tured Calcutta, and thrust all the British residents into a 
loathsome dungeon called the Black Hole, where most of 
them died in agonies of thirst and suffocation in a single 
night. Robert Clive,' formerly a poor clerk in the Com- 
pany's counting-house, now at the head of only 3,000 
men, recovered Calcutta and gained a complete victory 
over the army of Dowlah, who soon afterwards lost his 
station and his life. Clive was made Governor of Calcutta, 
and Baron of Plassy, from the scene of his victory. 

668. In 1773, the three Presidencies of Bombay, Mad- 
ras, and Bengal were united under Warren Hastings,- who, 
as Governor-General, resided at Calcutta. He carried on 
a fierce conflict with Hyder Ali, the native sultan of 
Mysore in southern India, who was aided by the French 
during the war of American Independence (§652). He 
was conquered at last, but the struggle was renewed by 
his son, Tippoo Sahib, when the French Revolution had 
reawakened the hostilities in Europe between the French 
and the English. The whole kingdom of Mysore was at 
length absorbed into the British Empire. 

66g. The Company's servants usually made themselves 
rich at the expense of the Hindus, perhaps quieting their 
consciences with the assurance that no amount of extor- 
tion and oppression could equal the cruelties of the native 
rulers. But this excuse did not satisfy English feeling at 
home. In 1786, Hastings was accused, by Edmund Burke, 
before the bar of the House of Lords ; and, though he was 
finally act^uitted on the ground that the directors of the 
company were more guilty of extortion than he, effectual 
measures were taken to protect the helpless natives of 
India from future abuse. 



374 MODERN HISTORY. 

670. In 1833, the Indian trade was thrown freely open 
to all British subjects. The Chinese government was soon 
alarmed by the enormous quantities of opium brought into 
its markets from northern India. The Chinese people 
were only too fond of the ruinous drug ; their government 
made stringent laws to prevent its introduction ; and, when 
these were violated, British merchants were shut up in 
their factory at Canton until they gave up all the opium in 

their possession. The English home-govern- 

A. D. 1840-1842. - , . P . 

ment went to war for the protection of its 
subjects. Canton and several other towns were taken by 
storm, and, at length, the Chinese officials signed a treaty 
ceding Hong Kong to the British, and opening several 
ports to foreign trade. 

671. This was a great concession; for the oldest of em- 
pires had kept itself closed for ages against all the rest of 
the world. It soon afterwards made treaties with France 
and the United States. A new war was occasioned, in 
1855, by some trifling encroachment on the part of the 
Chinese. Canton was again captured by a French and 
English force, and, by the treaty of Tientsin, more cordial 
relations were established. 

672. A far more serious war soon threatened England 
with the loss of her whole Indian Empire. The native 
soldiers, called Sepoys, by means of whom this great 
peninsula was kept in subjection, numbered nearly a 
quarter of a million. Better fed, paid, and treated than 
they ever had been by their native rulers, the Sepoys 
obeyed their officers with childlike confidence. But they 
were a superstitious race, and any slight to their religion 
enraged them beyond endurance. The government held 
itself bound to respect their religion wherever it did not 
violate the universal principles of humanity — only inter 
fering to prevent the burning of widows and the drowning 
of children as a sacrifice to the Ganges. 



I 



THE SEPOY REBELLION. 375 

673. In 1856, new rifles came out from England for 
the Sepoy regiments ; and with them greased cartridges, 
which were supposed to contain beef-tallow. l"o bite off 
the ends of these would be pollution to a Hindu ; and, feel- 
ing their ancient faith insulted, several regiments mutinied. 
Frightful massacres of the white residents occurred at 
Delhi, Meerut, and Cawnpore ; and Lucknow, capital of 
Oude, was besieged, all the summer of 1857, by thousands 
of infuriated rebels. Gen. Havelock brought a small force 
from Persia, and, after many battles with far greater num- 
bers of Sepoys, he was able to enter Lucknow and save 
it until relief could come from home. 

674. At length Sir Colin Campbell, with a brigade of 
Highlanders, appeared, and the scene changed. Delhi, 
the rebel capital, was taken, and its king, the "last of 
the Moguls," with his sons, was executed for mutiny. 
The rebellion was soon over. The government 

of India was taken from the company and ■ ' s • 

vested in the crown. The queen — now called Empress of 
India — appoints a viceroy to represent her at Calcutta; and 
efforts have been made to extend even to the lowest orders 
of Hindus the benefits of enlightened and Christian govern- 
ment. The British rulers refrain, as before, from directly 
interfering with the native religion; but the liberal educa- 
tion provided for Hindu youth is rapidly relieving them 
from the bondage of ancient superstition. 

675. The great continent of Australia was first colo- 
nized, by English convicts, in 1788. A thousand of these 
wretched creatures, from prisons at home, arrived in 
Sydney Cove with their officers, and began to clear the 
wilderness, make roads and bridges, and prepare the way 
for better colonists. Hard work proved its advantages; 
many reformed their lives, and became useful citizens and 
even magistrates. Australian wool became celebrated in 
European markets; and thousands of free settlers were 



376 MODERN HISTORY. 

glad to follow where the convicts had prepared the way. 
The original colony of New South Wales was divided, 
Victoria being set off on the south and Queensland on 
the north. 

In May, 1851, gold was discovered in Victoria, and a 
great immigration of adventurers followed. Melbourne, the 
capital of Victoria, has become a thriving city of nearly 
200,000 inhabitants, and is the seat of a university, while 
Sydney, the first settlement founded, is hardly less impor- 
tant. Australia and the neighboring island of Tasmania 
are united by submarine telegraph with London, while the 
great inland wilderness is fast being turned into homes for 
civilized men. 

676. The chiefs of New Zealand^ acknowledged Queen 
Victoria as their sovereign in 1840. Covering more space 
than the British Islands, New Zealand is said to be un- 
surpassed by any country in the world for richness of 
soil, healthfulness of climate, and grandeur of scenery. 
The native Maoris are a noble race, who have gladly 
accepted civilized and Christian teaching. Their skill in 
war has, however, made them dangerous enemies when- 
ever the settlers have provoked their hostilities. The Fiji 
islanders have lately put themselves under the protection 
and control of the British Queen, and have sent her the 
great war-club which, for hundreds of years, has been 
used as a scepter by their chiefs. 

Point out the Mogul capital of Hindustan. The present capital 
of Britisli India. The three presidencies. Canton. Hong Kong. 
The provinces of Australia. Melbourne. Sydney. New Zealand. 
The P^ijis. 

Read Mills' "British India;" Articles in Encyclopaedia Britannica 
on Hindustan, Australia, and New Zealand ; Macaulay's Essays on 
Clive and Warren Hastings. 



NOTES. 377 



NOTES. 

1. Robert Clive was born at Market Dra5'ton, in tlie west of England, 
in 1725. His "strong will and flery passions" nnfltted him for peaceful 
pursuits at home, and, at 18, his family "shipped him off to make a 
fortune or die of a fever at Madras." In the East India Company's 
contests, tirst with the French, and afterwards witli the native princes, 
Clive found a fleld for his great military talents. His first feat was the 
surprise and capture of Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, with a force 
of only 200 English and 300 native soliliers. Plere he was almost imme- 
diately besieged by 10,000 natives and French. Macaulay says: "The 
walls were ruinous, the ditches dry, the ramparts too narrow to admit 
the guns, the battlements too low to protect the soldiers. The garrison 
began to feel the pressure of hunger. But the devotion of the little 
band to its chief surpassed any thing that is related of the Tenth Le- 
gion of Ctesar, or of the Old Guard of Napoleon. The Sepoys came to 
Clive— not to complain of their scanty fare, but to propose that all the 
grain should be given to the Europeans, who required more nourish- 
ment than the natives of Asia. The thin gruel, they said, which was 
strained away from the rice, would suffice for themselves!" The de- 
fense was a complete success, and Clive thenceforth occupied a front 
rank among English soldiers. Macaulay thus sums up the services 
which entitle him to be consklered the Founder of the British Empire 
in Hiudostan: "From his first visit to India dates the renown of En- 
glish arms in the East. With the defense of Arcot commences that 
long series of Oriental triumphs which closes with the fall of Ghazni. 
Nor must we forget that he was only 25 years old when he approved 
himself ripe for military command .... Clive, an inexperienced 
youth, had yet more experience than any of those who served under 
him. He had to form himself, to form his officers and to form his 
army. . . . From Clive's second visit to India dates the political as- 
cendancy of the English in that country. . . . Such an extent of 
cultivated territory, such an amount of revenue, such a multitude of 
subjects, was never added to the dominion of Rome by the most suc- 
cessful proconsul. . . . From Clive's third visit to India dates the 
purity of the administration of our Eastern empire. When he landed 
at Calcutta in 1765, Bengal was regarded as a place to which Englishmen 
were sent only to get rl<!h by any means, in the shortest possible time, 
lie first made dauntless and unsj)aring war on that gigantic system of 
oppression, extortion, and corruption. In that war he manfully put to 
hazard his ease, his fame, his splendid fortune. ... If the reproach 
of the Company and its servants has been taken away — if in India the 
yoke of foreign masters, elsewhere the heaviest of all yokes, has been 
found lighter than that of any native dynasty, . . . the praise is in 
no small measure due to Clive. His name stands high on the roll of 
conquerors. But it is found in a better list— in the list of those who 
have done and suflfered much for the happiness of mankind." 

Clive was brought to trial before the House of Commons for his ad- 
ministration in India; but his great services and the general elevation 
of his policy overbalanced all the charges against him. He died in 1774. 

2. Hastings, like Clive, had been a clerk in the East India Company's 
employ, and he served as a private volunteer i:i one of Clive's first ex- 
peditions. "But the quick eye of (Jlive perceived that the head of the 
young volunteer would be more useful than his arm," and, after the 
battle of Plassy, Hastings was appointed to reside as agent of the com- 
pany at the court of the new Nabob of Bengal. He rose, by successive 
steps, to be member of Council at Calcutta, afterwards at INIadras, Gov- 
ernor of Bengal, and, at last, Governor General of the whole country. 
At all stages of his career, his studious tastes led him to delight in the 
languages and literature of the East, and his general policy as a ruler 
was enlightened and liberal. Still, the urgent demands of the company 
at home for large remittances of money, led him into two or three 
transactions whicii were felt to be inconsistent with the honor of En- 
gland. One of those was the lending of an English army— for two mil- 
lions of dollars— to Sujah Dowlah, prince of Oude, for the conquest of 
the Rohillas, the finest race in India. They could bring 80,000 men into 
the fleld. " Sujah Dowlah had himself seen them fight, and wisely shrank 



378 



MODERN HISTORY. 



from a conflict with them." They were defeated by the English. "Then 
the Nabob Vizier and his rabble made their appearance, and hastened 
to plunder the camp of the valiant enemies, whom they had never 
dared to look in the face. . . . The horrors of Indian war were let 
loose on the fair valleys and cities of Rohilcund. The whole country 
was in a blaze. More than 1{X),0U0 people fled from their homes to pes- 
tilential jungles, preferring famine and fever and the haunts of tigers 
to the tyranny of him, to whom an English and a Christian govern- 
ment had sold their substance and their blood. The rich province which 
had tempted the cupidity of Sujah Dowlah became the most miserable 
part of even his miserable dominions." 

The directors of the Company condemned the conduct of Hastings in 
this matter; but they could not fail to approve his energy and prompt- 
ness in dealing with Hyder-Ali, who invaded the Carnatic in 1780. 
Tills Mohammedan warrior was king of Mysore, and the 'ablest enemy 
the English ever had to contend with in India.' The war of American 
Independi life had now drawn England and France into conflict, and 
a French fleet was daily expected on the Coromandel coast. Hyder had 
attacked and defeated two British generals, and had advanced almost 
to the walls of Madras, when " a swift ship, flying before the south-west 
monsoon, brought the evil tidings to Calcutta." Hastings promptly dis- 
patched men and money to the scene of action, superseded the incom- 
petent governor of Madras, and entrusted iSir Eyre Coote, the ablest 
British general of his time, with the conduct of the war. The re-in- 
forcements reached Madras before the arrival of the French: "the pro- 
gress of Hyder was arrested, and in a few months the great victory of 
Porto Novo retrieved the honor of tlie English arms." 

To meet the expense of this war Hastings expelled the rich king of 
Benares from his dominions and coiiliscated all his revenues; then de- 
spoiled two widowed princesses of Oude, mother and grandmother of 
the Nabob Vizier, who was a son of Sujah Dowlah. 

In 1785 Hastings resigned his office and returned to England. Within 
a week after his landing at Plymouth, Edmund Burke gave notice in 
the House of Commons of a motion for his impeachment. Tlie trial 
came on in 1788, and lasted seven years. It ended in the acquittal of 
Hastings, whose great services were rewarded by an annuity of S20,0(X). 
He died, 1818, at the age of 86. 

3. The Colonies and foreign dependencies of Great Britain embrace 
about one seventh of the land surface of the globe, and nearly one 
fourth of its population, having more than sixty times the extent of 
the United Kingdom itself Tliey are under 40 ditterent colonial gov- 
ernments, of which 4 are in Europe, 11 in or near America, 10 in or near 
Africa, 7 in Asia, and 8 in Australasia. The European colonies are Hel- 
igoland, Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus, all of which have rulers appointed 
by the crown. Tlie American possessions are, 1, The Bahamas, a grou]) 
of 800 islands, of which 20 are inhabited; 2, The Bermudas, about ;{()0, of 
which 15 are inhabited; 8, The Dominion of t^anada, comprising tlie 
provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, 
British Columbia, Prince Edward's Island and the territories; 4, The 
Falkland Islands; 5, Guiana; ti, Honduras; 7, Jamaica; 8, The Leeward - 
Islands; 0, Newfoundland; 10, Trinidad; 11, The Windward Islands. In 
Asia, besides the great empire of India, which numbers nearly 200,000,000 
of human beings, England possesses the town of Aden, at the entrance 
of the Red Sea; the Island of Ceylon; the "Straits Settlements," com- 
prising the Islands of Singapore and Penang, with the territory of 
Malacca: the Island of Hong Kong; and two of less importance. 

New Zealand was first visited by the Dutch navigator, Tasman, In 
1642; explored by Captain Cook, 1769; settled first by deserters from 
whaling ships and escaped convicts from New South Wales, but after- 
wards, about 1835, by respectable colonists from England and Scotland, 
pioneered by Wesleyan and other missionaries. Its House of Repre- 
sentatives has 88 members, of whom 4 are Maoris, chosen by their own 
people. Speaking of the progress in civilization under English rule, 
the Encyclopaedia Britannica says: " A chief now, instead of leading his 
followers on to plunder and massacre the white men, may be seen 
walking into a banking office in Auckland or Wellington, and writing 
a check for a portion of his money deposited there; or sitting in a 
news-room perusing a newspaper printed in his own language." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

ANY changes were silently going on 
in Europe during the eighteenth 
century. A skeptical sort of phi- 
losophy had taken possession of the 
higher classes, while the newspapers 
and debating clubs excited every- 
where a spirit of inquiry among the 
common people. The oldest and 
most sacred things were questioned; 
and, in France especially, neither 
Church nor State was in a condi- 
tion to bear questioning. The na- 
tional religion had become merely 
a splendid cloak for wickedness; 
while the government seemed to 
exist only to provide gayety and 
luxury for the court, caring nothing 
for the intolerable miseries of the 
people. 

678. Louis XVI. was a good, but 
rather dull, prince — earnestly wishing to reform the evils 
of his government, but knowing how as little as did that 
princess of his family, who, being told that thousands of 
peasants were starving to death, exclaimed ''Poor things! 
If there is no bread, why do you not give them cake ? " 
As a last resort, the States-general — /. c. , the three 
"Estates," or orders of Nobles, Clergy, and Commons — 
were summoned to meet at Versailles, in May, 1789. 

(379) 




The "Sans Culottes." 



380 MODERN HISTORY. 

679. The Assembly numbered more than a thousand, 
and included some of the wisest and best men in France. 
They struck at the root of the prevailing misery by taxing 
clergy, nobles, and even the royal domains (§639), throw- 
ing the burdens of the state on those who derived most 
benefit from it. But the abuses of a thousand years could 
not be so easily cleared away, though a mania for change 
seemed suddenly to seize the Assembly. A duke and a 
viscount moved the abolition of all titles and privileges 
belonging to the nobles. Serfdom, too, was abolished; 
offices in the army and the state were thrown open to all 
ranks; and all religions were made equal before the law. 
A medal was struck, representing Louis XVI. as the 
restorer of French liberty; and a solemn Te Deuni was 
sung to celebrate the hopes of the nation. 

680. Already, however, a dangerous and desperate class 
of men had become conscious of their power — men who 
thought that liberty meant the supremacy of their passions. 
A furious mob stormed and demolished the Bastile, a 
grim old fortress, which had been the scene of many 
cruel imprisonments, but which now contained only a 
garrison of invalid soldiers. Another riotous company, 
composed largely of women, took the road to Versailles, 
where the Assembly was sitting, and where the royal 
family was residing. They forced the palace, and would 
have murdered the queen but for the intervention of 
Lafayette,' who commanded the National Guard. The 
king and queen, with their children, were escorted to 
Paris by the whole mob — the heads of their murdered 
guards being borne on pikes beside them. 

681. Most of the nobles and princes of the blood now 
quitted France, leaving the king to his fate. His own 
attempt to escape with his family was in vain. They were 
arrested and brought back to a brutal imprisonment. The 
Assembly, having finished its work of making a new 



THE JACOBIN CLUB. 381 

constitution for France, was dissolved, and was succeeded 
by a Legislative Assembly, composed wholly of different 
members. The Girondists, so called from the district 
whence most of them came, were the leaders. They 
desired a constitutional monarchy, like that of England, 
or, at most, a well-ordered republic, but they had to seek 
the favor of the mob by many unwise measures. 

682. The Jacobin Club now possessed an immense power 
in France, and its journals and almanacs made it the 
terror of all Europe — advocating, as they did, the over- 
throw of all existing institutions, and a revolt against all 
authority, human and divine. Under their influence, the 
Reign of Terror began in Paris, with the September 
Massacres of 1792. A tiger-like thirst for blood seized 
the mob, who broke open asylums and prisons, and 
murdered all whom they could find — priests, women and 
children, paupers and lunatics. The king and his family 
were thrown into the gloomy prison of the Temple. The 
beautiful Princess de Lamballe, the intimate friend and late 
attendant of the queen, was immured for a few days in the 
prison of La Force, and then brutally beheaded. Three 
thousand persons, suspected of favoring the king, were 
dragged from their beds by night and hurried to the dun- 
geon, and from there to the guillotine. 

683. The Mountain — so the Jacobins were called from 
the high seats they occupied — became supreme in the 
Convention which succeeded the Legislative Assembly. 
"Louis Capet" was tried by the Convention, and found 

■ guilty of^various crimes against his people. Some would 
have imprisoned or exiled him for life, but a majority, 
and among them his kinsman, Philip Egalite — so called 
since his title of Duke of Orleans had been abolished — 
voted for immediate execution. 

684. On a frosty morning in January, 1793, Louis XVL 
was led out to die. A sea of silent faces surrounded the 



382 



MODERN HISTORY. 



guillotine. The king was about to address them, but his 
voice was drowned in the roll of drums. One faithful 
friend, the Abbe Edge worth, stood beside him to the last. 
When his head had fallen beneath the fatal knife, some 
of the crowd, more brutal than the rest, dipped pikes and 
staves in the blood and marched away, shouting "Long 
live the Republic ! " 

685. The queen was guillotmed the next October. Her 
little son, whom royalists called Louis XVIL, became idiotic 
through fright, hunger, and neglect, and is supposed to 
have died in his wretched dungeon. Some people believe 
a hajipier story, that he was secretly conveyed to a home 
among the American forests, where he grew up to be a 
hiunble missionary to the Indians, and learned of his high 
birth in his old age from a grandson of Philip Egalite. 

686. The Girondists were the next to fall. Their leaders 
were guillotined, and with them Madame Roland,- whose 
genius and spirit had done much to inspire the party. 
The three leaders of the Jacobins were Marat, Danton, 
and Robespierre. The first was a brutal wretch, whose 
ferocity would have l;etter suited a bloodhound than a 
man. A noble-hearted woman, Charlotte Corday^by name, 
devoted her life to the rescue of her country from this 
monster. From her home in Normandy she hastened to 
Paris, gained admission to the house of Marat, and stabbed 
him to the heart; then, with perfect calmness gave herself 
up to the guillotine. 

687. But France could not be saved by such means. 
The storm of passion liecame wilder than ever. Christi- 
anity itself was abolished by law; and over the gates of 
cemeteries was written "Death is an eternal sleep." A 
"goddess of Reason'" was carried in pompous procession 
through the streets, and enthroned at Notre Dame. A 
more innocent sign of the general rage for destruction, 
w^as the abolition of old names for months and days of 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 383 

the week, and the substitution of new and fanciful ones. 
All events were now dated from the rise of the French 
Republic, September 22, 1792. 

688. Danton at length wearied of the carnival of blood- 
shed, but his attempt to arrest it only carried him and his 
associates to the guillotine. Robespierre reigned for three 
months over the Revolutionary Tribunal, which placed the 
lives of the whole French nation at his disposal. With 
all his crimes this man was not an atheist, and he made 
the Convention pass a decree affirming the existence of 
God, and the immortality of the soul. But the butchery 
of the guillotine went on with more method and less 
interruption than ever before. At last some few found 
courage to conspire against him; he and eighty 

of his accomplices were brought to the scaffold, " '' '^^^" 
and as his head fell, a joyful shout arose from the multi- 
tude, declaring that the Reign of Terror was ended. 

689. The Convention had declared itself the "friend of 
all peoples, but the enemy of all governments." A grand 
Coalition of nearly all the powers of Europe was now in 
arms to put down so dangerous a neighbor, and its forces 
were increased by many of the emigrated princes and 
nobles (§681). The French seaport of Toulon revolted 
against the Republic, and received 16.000 soldiers of the 
Coalition into its forts. The Convention declared that it 
must be retaken, or the French general commanding the 
besiegers must be guillotined. .A.t this point, a young 
Corsican captain of artillery* showed how, by seizing a little 
fort called the "Needle," the Englisli position could be 
"turned inside out," and the place taken. The old general 
was amazed at his subaltern's presumption; but any thing 
was better than the guillotine; the advice was followed. 
A "tiger-spring" by the Corsican and his followers secured 
the fort; the allies abandoned Toulon; and N^apokon Bona- 
parte had won his place in history. 



384 MODERN HISTORY. 

6go. The Revolution had now plunged France into 
greater poverty and misery than even Louis XIV. had 
done^ — the rich being exiled or massacred, the poor 
without employment. Paris was starving : the mass of 
the people had only two ounces of bread and a handful 
of rice dealt out daily to each by the government. The 
royalists of the western coast proclaimed Louis XVIIL as 
their king, and asked aid of the allies ; and even the 
drowning of 15,000 people, at Nantes, by order of the 
Convention, did not put an end to this counter-revolution. 

691. A new and better government was established at 
Paris in 1795, though not without a "whiff of gunpowder" 
from the cannon of General Bonaparte, who had been 
called to the defense of the capital. A Directory of five 
persons was intrusted with the execution of laws, which 
were made by two Councils, resembling our Senate and 
House of Representatives. Something like order and pros- 
perity was now restored; the rule of the rabble ceased, 
and respectable people, who had lied from the Reign of 
Terror, returned. 

692. Meanwhile the French armies had been victorious 
in the Netherlands, where, indeed, they met little resistance. 
The existing governments were exchanged for the Belgiar 
and Batavian Republics, which allied themselves with 
France. In 1796, Bonaparte's first campaign in Italy 
astonished the world. Perhaps it astonished himself, by 
proving what tireless energy and an indomitable will can 
achieve; for he dated from his tremendous passage of 
the bridge at Lodi, swept by the Austrian cannon, that 
wonderful career which made him master of continental 
Europe. 

693. All northern Italy was now subdued by his arms — 
including the Venetian Republic, which had stood for 1345 
years — and, invading Austria from the southward, he ad- 
vanced within a few days' march of Vienna. 



I 



MAP No. XIII. 

BRITISH WRITERS OF THE NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURY. 



John Keats, 1795-1820: "Endymion," " Hyperion," etc. 
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-182 2: Poems. 
Lord Byron, 1788-1824: " Childe Harold," etc. 
Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832 : "Waverly Novels," Poems, etc. 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1 772-1834: Poems, Essays, etc. 
Thomas Arnold, 1795-1842 : " History of Rome," etc. 
Robert Southey, 17 74-1 843 : " Curse of Kehama," etc. 
Thomas Campbell, 1 777-1844: "Pleasures of Hoi:)e," etc. 
William Wordsworth, 1770-1850: " The Excursion," etc. 
Thomas Moore, 1779-1852: "Irish Melodies," " Lalla 

Rookh," etc. 
Samuel Rogers, 1763-1855 : "Pleasures of Memory," etc. 
Felicia Hemans, 1793-1855 : " Forest Sanctuary," etc. 
Leigh Hunt, 1784-1859: Essays, Poems, etc. 
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1800-1859 : "History of 

England," " Essays," " Lays of Ancient Rome." 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1 809-1 861 : Poems. 
\Vm. Makepeace Thackeray, 1811-1861: " Pendennis," etc. 
Walter Savage Landor, 1775-1864: " Imaginary Conversa- 

tioi s," etc. 
Henry Hart Milman, 1791-1868: "Hist, of Latin Christianity." 
Charles Dickens, 1812-1870: " Pickwick Papers," etc. 
Thomas Carlyle, 1795-: "French Revolution," etc. 
Alfred Tennyson, 1810-: "In Memoriam," "Idyls of the 

King," and other poems. 
Robert Browning, 1812-: " Bells and Pomegranates," etc. 
Philip James Bailey, 181 6-: " Festus," etc. 
James Anthony Froude, 1818-: "History of England," etc. 
Edward Freeman : " History of the Norman Conquest," etc. 
"George Eliot" (Mrs. Lewes): "Adam Bede," etc. 



INVENTIONS AND PUBLIC WORKS. 



Steam Engine patented by James Watt . . A. D. 
Hargreave's Spinning Jenny patented 
First Power Loom patented by Cartwright 
Sewing Machine, Saint's, patented in England 
Cotton-gin by Eli Whitney ..... 

Trevethick's Steam Locomotive used in Welsh mines 

Steamboat Clermont carried passengers from New 

York to Albany ...... 

London Times first printed by Steam Power Press, Nov. 
Streets of London and Paris lighted by Gas . 
Steamship Savannah crossed the Atlantic 
Passenger Trains first moved by Steam in England 
and United States ..... 

Sewing Machine, Thimonnier's, patented in France 
Sun Pictures made by Daguerre .... 

Electro-magnetic Telegraph, Baltimore to Washington 
Sewing Machine, Elias Howe's practical improvement 
Submarine Cable, Dover to Calais .... 

Photo-engraving by Talbot ..... 

Spectrum Analysis finds metals in stars and sun 1814- 
Submarine Cable, Ireland to Newfoundland . 1858, 
Suez Canal, Mediterranean to Red Sea, opened . Nov. 
Pacific Railway completed ..... 

Telegraphic wires completed, London to Bombay . 
Mont Cenis Tunnel, 7 I2 miles long, France to Pied- 
mont ....... Sept. 

Hoosac Tunnel, 43/j^ m. long, in Massachusetts . Nov. 
Telephones patented in England and V. S. 
Phonograph improved by Edison .... 



NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 385 

By the peace of Campo Formio, the Emperor Francis II. 
received the Venetian territory in exchange for the Austrian 
Netherlands, which were now the Belgian Republic. 

694. The Coalition being thus dissolved, England alone 
remained at war with France, and the Directory resolved 
to strike a blow at her possessions in the East. For this 
purpose Bonaparte sailed, with a great army, 

to Egypt, occupied Alexandria, and gained ' ' '^^ ' 
Cairo by a furious battle with the Mamelukes, on the plain 
of the Pyramids. The English admiral. Nelson,^ following 
with his fleet, destroyed almost all the French vessels in 
the Bay of Aboukir. He was rewarded by the title of 
"Baron Nelson of the Nile.'' In spite of his losses, Bona- 
parte pushed on into Syria, and captured Gaza and Jaffa. 
Acre, however, withstood him, and, a plague breaking out, 
he returned to Egypt, where he gained a victory over the 
Turks, and then sailed for France. 

695. Arriving at Paris, he overthrew the Directory, and 
made himself head of the republic, wath the title of First 
Consul. A second Coalition of the European powers had 
now liberated Italy, but Bonaparte reconquered 

it in a swift campaign of five weeks, including 
his defeat of the Austrians at Marengo. General Moreau 
had almost as remarkable success in Germany ; and his 
victory at Hohenlinden was followed by peace with Austria. 
The other powers — England the last of all, at Amiens — 
made peace with France. 

696. Bonaparte now proved himself no less able in 
government than in war. A new and much needed code 
of laws was compiled by the best lawyers, with his advice 
and assistance; and so just were his conclusions, that 
France has kept the Code Napoleon under all the changes 
of government which she has undergone since it was made. 
The Roman Church was reestablished, though all sects 
and creeds were still equal before the laws. 150,000 

Hist.— 25. 



386 MODERN HISTORY. 

emigrants returned, and their estates were restored to them 
as far as possible. 

697. The Peace of Amiens was soon broken by Great 
Britain; and Mr. Pitt, second son of the Great Commoner 
(§649), stirred up a Third CoaUtion, of all th^ chief 
powers, against France. The exiled Bourbons kept a secret 
army of assassins about Bonaparte ; and both sides felt 
that his death would ensure the restoration of the old 
monarchy. This made the French people willing to ex- 
change their consulate for an empire; and, in May, 1804, 
a decree of the Senate, confirmed by the Legislative 
Corps, made Napoleon I. emperor of the French, the 
throne being declared hereditary in his family. Pope Pius 
VII. came all the way from Rome to crown the new 
Charlemagne (§311). 

698. Immense preparations were now made for an in- 
vasion of England; but, to the astonishment of the world, 
Napoleon suddenly marched his army into Germany, sur- 
prised General Mack at Ulm, and captured that general's 
entire command, with cannon and stores. He then pushed 
forward to Vienna, which he entered in triumph, while 
Francis II. made a hasty retreat. In the battle of Auster- 
litz, soon afterward, the three emperors of Russia, Austria, 
and the French were present with their armies: Napoleon 
gained one of the most thorough of all his victories, and 
the czar and kaiser threw up the game in despair. 

699. By the treaty of Presburg, Francis II. resigned his 
last foothold in Italy, and the oldest territory of his house, 
including the castle and county of Hapsburg (§365). 
Soon afterward the "Holy Roman Empire" was dissolved, 
and the 120th of the Caesars became merely Francis I., 
hereditary emperor of Austria, and king of Hungary and^ 
Bohemia. 

700. Lord Nelson fought his last battle off Cape Trafal- 
gar, in. Portugal, October, 1805; destroying the French and J 



I 



THE BERLIN DECREE. 387 

Spanish fleets, and thus securing to England the supremacy 
of the seas. He was struck by a ball early in the action. 
Drawing his cloak over the decorations he wore, so that 
his men might not know him, he lay three hours in mortal 
agony while the battle raged about him. At last he was 
told that a signal victory had been gained, and died, ex- 
claiming "Thank God! I have done my duty!" 

701. The King of Prussia's weak and timid policy made 
him a mere dupe of Napoleon, who first forced him to 
accept Hanover, in order to plunge him into a war with 
England, and then took it away from him when another 
arrangement seemed more to the advantage of the con- 
queror. Frederic William HI. had lost the friendship of 
the other powers by seeking the favor of Napoleon, and 
he now had to stand almost alone against him. The 
French legions moved northward with their customary 
swiftness, and by the two victories of Jena 

and Auerstadt, which were gained on the 
same day, captured or destroyed almost the entire Prussian 
army. Several strong fortresses surrendered to the French; 
and, in less than a year from Napoleon's seizure of the 
Austrian capital, he was entering that of Prussia as a 
conqueror. The sword of Frederic the Great was sent to 
Paris as a trophy. 

702. At this point Napoleon published his famous 
" Berlin Decree," forbidding all commerce and intercourse 
with Great Britain. By attacking the source of England's 
wealth, he hoped to destroy the opposition to his suprem- 
acy; for he well knew that the other nations could not 
long continue at war with him, but for the never-failing 
supply of British gold. His Continental System, however, 
did more harm to the continent than to England. George 
ni. replied to the Berlin Decree by an Order in Council, 
declaring a blockade of all ports in Europe from which 
the British flag was excluded, and directing his shipmasters 



388 MODERN HISTORY. 



to seize and search all vessels which they found approach- 
ing those ports. 

703. Russian armies soon came to the relief of the 
Prussians; and, in the terrible battle of Eylau, inflicted 
such losses upon the French, that Napoleon offered terms 
of peace. These were refused, and soon afterward he 
was decidedly victorious at Friedland, while the great 
fortress of Dantzic was taken by his troops. The czar 
now proposed peace, and met Napoleon on a raft, moored 
midway in the Niemen River, which separated his dominion 
from Prussia. Alexander was filled with admiration for 
the military genius of his late opponent, and for a time 
they were good friends. The poor king of Prussia was 
deprived of half his dominions, part of which went to 
make the new kingdom of Westphalia, for Jerome Bona- 
parte. Two other brothers of Napoleon were recognized 
by the czar as kings, the one of the Two Sicilies, and the 
other of Holland. 

704. Portugal meanwhile disobeyed the Berlin Decree, 
and General Junot was ordered to put an end to her 
existence. It was done, and the Braganzas, quitting their 
European kingdom, established a vaster empire in Brazil. 
French troops, about the same time, marched into Rome, 
and overthrew the pope's temporal power. Spain was the 
next victim. Her Bourbon king, Charles IV., cared more 
for his lazy ease than for the duty he owed his people. 
He sold his kingdom to Napoleon for a castle and a 
pension; his sons, refusing to do likewise with their inher- 
itance, were imprisoned at Valen(;ay; and the crown of 
Spain was bestowed on Joseph Bonaparte. He resigned 
that of the Two Sicilies to his brother-in-law, Murat, and 
was crowned at Madrid, in January, 1809. 

705. The Spaniards felt themselves wronged and insulted 
by this bargain. They organized a new government, at 
Seville, in the name of Ferdinand VII., the eldest son 



TREATY OF SCHONBRUNN. 389 

of Charles, and besought the help of England. Portugal 
followed their example; and Sir Arthur Wellesley, landing 
at Mondego Bay, defeated Junot so severely that he had 
to quit the country with all that remained of his army. 
The English were almost equally successful in Spain, until 
Napoleon came in person to his brother's relief. Then 
his imperious will, as usual, swept all before it, and the 
British army, under Sir John Moore, was driven from the 
peninsula. Before embarking, they defeated the French at 
Corunna, but with the loss of their brave leader. 

706. The Austrian emperor, always bitterly enraged at 
tlie treaty of Presburg (^699), thought his time for re- 
venge had come while his great enemy was far away in 
Spain. Hastily collecting a force twice as numerous as 
the French, he pushed into Bavaria. But his movements 
were watched. Almost as swiftly as a thunderbolt Napo- 
leon traversed France, entered Germany, and by five 
battles, fought in five successive days, cleared his way to 
Vienna, which surrendered to him. May 12, 1809. The 
treaty of Schonbrunn, which followed, was more humili- 
ating to Austria than even that of Presburg had been. 
The next year Francis L accepted his conqueror as a 
son-in-law. Napoleon, having dissolved his marriage with 
Josephine, espoused the archduchess Maria Louisa. In 
181 1, a son was born to him, who received the title of 
King of Rome. 

707. King Louis of Holland, having offended his brother 
by opposing the restrictions on trade which were ruining 
his people (§702), retired into Austria, and his kingdom 
was annexed to France. The czar was equally injured 
by the "Continental System," and by many other acts of 
Napoleon. He now joined with Sweden — whose regent 
and crown-prince was Bernadotte, a former general of 
Napoleon — in resisting that oppressive system; and a new 
war broke out, on a grander scale than even those that 



39© MODERN HISTORY. 

had preceded it. Austria and Prussia were now allies of 
France; Great Britain and Sweden, of Russia. Napoleon, 
while mustering his forces, summoned a throng of princes 
to meet him at Dresden, and indulged his pride by such 
a display of imperial grandeur as Europe had never seen 
before. 

708. Then, with half a million of men, splendidly equip- 
ped, he marched into Russia. But the forces of nature 
seemed all arrayed against him. A terrible hurricane, 
followed by floods and excessive cold, swept away multi- 
tudes of horses and men. Space itself, which his swift, 
decisive movements had hitherto overcome, now mastered 
him. The Russians retreated, destroying all their harvests, 
and burning towns through which the French must pass; 
and when he arrived at Moscow, the ancient capital, it, 
too, was silent and deserted. The French took possession ; 
but in the night, fires, kindled by long trains, burst forth 
in every part of the city. 

709. Conquered by frost and flame, Napoleon at length 
ordereci a retreat. The track of his grand army was 
strewn with corpses like one long battle-field. In a single 
night, thousands of men and all the remaining horses were 
frozen to death. Troops of Cossacks harassed the march; 
and, arriving at the River Beresina, the French had to 

cross a bridge under furious fire from the 

Nov., lSl2. _ . XT- 1 r- .1 J 

Russian cannon. Nme-tenths of the grand 
army were left dead upon Russian plains, and the rest 
were frightfully maimed and shattered. 

710. The enemies and unwilling allies of Napoleon took 
courage from his misfortunes; and the whole continent was 
engaged in the war of 18 13. Napoleon's extraordinary 
genius was never more manifest than in this season of 
tremendous difSculties. Wherever he commanded in per- 
son — at Lutzen, Bautzen, and Dresden — great victories were 
won; but his generals were almost every-where defeated. 



THE HUNDRED DAYS. 29 1 

At length, in a three days' battle at Leipsic, the allies were 
victorious, and Napoleon was compelled to retreat. 

711. A crowd of deposed princes — among them Pope 
Pius VII. — now returned to their deserted thrones. Early 
in 1 8 14, the allies were ready to move from the north, east, 
and south upon Paris. Still Napoleon's movements were 
as firm and decisive as ever. Though immensely out- 
numbered by his enemies, he still acted upon his old 
principle of so massing his troops as to be always the 
strongest at the point of attack. In this way he drove 
back Blucher, the Prussian general, defeated the Aus- 
trians, and was even carrying the war into Germany, 
when he heard that the allies were marching directly 
upon Paris. 

712. After a battle in the suburbs, the czar and the 
king of Prussia entered that city, followed by their vic- 
torious armies. Wellington was on his march from Spain, 
having completed the Peninsular War by the restoration 
of Ferdinand VII. A congress of the allies disposed of 
France and her chosen ruler at their will. Napoleon 
received the little island of Elba, and a pension, in ex- 
change for his empire. France was deprived of all her 
conquests since 1792, and was forced to accept Louis 
XVIII., a brother of the guillotined monarch (§684), as 
her king. 

713. The next spring. Napoleon, quitting Elba, landed 
almost alone in the south of France. He was soon joined 
by many devoted adherents. The king's brother, sent 
with an army to oppose him, had to make an unprincely 
retreat; for, at sight of the familiar and idolized figure in 
the gray surtout, nearly his whole force broke into shouts 
of '•'■Vwe T Empei-eur 1" and passed over to Napoleon's side. 
The Bourbons fled from Paris, and the emperor reigned 
a hundred days with greater energy than ever. Every 
nerve was strained to provide new armies for the defense 



392 MODERN HISTORY. 



of the restored empire. The multitude of mere boys who 
thronged the recruiting offices, at once proved the devo- 
tion of the people, and showed how the strength of France 
had been exhausted by twenty years of almost perpetual 
war. The graves of their fathers were scattered the length 
of Europe, from Malaga to Moscow. The allies also 
mustered their forces, and in the great battle of Waterloo, 
Wellington,^ the British, and Blucher, the Prussian com- 
mander, gained a victory which overthrew the Empire of 
the French. Napoleon tried to secure the crown to his 
son, who was now four years old; but the Senate insisted 
upon his abdicating without conditions. The allies refused 
to make any treaty with France, until the emperor should 
be placed in their keeping. He then attempted to make 
his escape to America, but the coast was too well guarded 
by British cruisers, and he was forced to surrender himself 
to one of their officers. He was not permitted to touch 
the soil of England, but was conveyed, as a prisoner, to 
the rocky islet of St. Helena, where he died, less than six 
years later. May 5th, 1821. 

Trace, on Map 13, the campaigns of Napoleon. 

Read Carlyle's French Revolution, and Dyer's Modern Europe ; 
Taine's " Revolution ; " Mignet's, Von Sybel's, or Thiers' History 
of the French Revolution; Thiers' " Consulate and Empire ; " Lan- 
frey's History of Napoleon I. 

For illustration, read Dickens's "Tale of Two Cities" and Victor 
Hugo's "Ninety-three." 

NOTES. 

1. Gilbert Metier, Marquis rtf> Lafayette, born in 1757, was one of the] 
most wealthy and powerful of the young nobles of France, when, atl 
tlie age of lit, he devoted his talents to the cause of American Independ-[ 
ence. The French government lia<l not yci iccosiiii/.ed the United States ; 
as a nation, but was nominally at peace with (Jreat liriiain, so that it 
was against the wishes of his king IJ;08H) that Lafayette fitted out a ship 
a!, his own expense, and, sailing for America, accepted the rank of 
major-general in tiie colonial army. He was wounded at the Brandy- 
wine, and received the thanks of Congress for his conduct at Monmouth. 
Returning to France in 1779, he brought supplies of money and arms 
to aid our cause, which tlie king had now embraced. Ijafayette had an 
important part in the victory at Yorktown (J ti.j2). He enjoyed, from his 



NOTES. 393 

first arrival in America, tlie confidence and affection of Washington, to 
whom lie sent the key of the Bastille— after the destruction of that fort- 
ress in 1789— as a token of his admiration. It is still among the objects 
of interest at Mt. Vernon. 

Lafayette's service in America made him immensely popular in 
France. As a member of the States-General lie drew up a Declaration 
of the Rit;hts of Man which was adopted. The same year he was placed 
by acclamation at the liead of the militia of Paris, which took the name 
oi" the National Guard. He desired for France a constitutional mon- 
archy like that of England, with perfect guarantees of the rights of the 
people; but, in trying to serve the best interests of all parties, he pleased 
none. The court hated and feared him for his influence with the peo- 
ple; the republicans suspected him for his efforts to save the king. Be- 
ing placed in command of one of tiie three revolutionary armies, he 
had to contend at once against the Austrians in Flanders and the Ja- 
cobins in Paris. In 1792, he fell into the power of the Austrians, wlio 
kept him a prisoner in the dungeons of Neiss and Olmiitz, until, in 
1797, Bonaparte insisted on his liberation, lie refused office under Na- 
poleon; but, in 1815, he also opposed the restoration of the Bourbons. 
He frequently spoke in the Chamber of Deputies, and always in behalf 
of "liberty, equality, and order." la 1824, he revisited America, and 
spent about a year in traveling through the 21 states of tlie Union, re- 
ceived every-where with grateful enthusiasm. Congress voted him $2OU,0U0 
as a recognition of his services in the War of Independence. On the 
accession of Louis Philippe as king of the French (g^724, 726), Lafayette 
said to him, " You know that I am a Republican, and that 1 regard the 
Constitution of the United States as the most perfect that ever existed." 
He died, May 20, 18U. 

2. Marie Jeanne Phlipon, afterwards Madame Roland., one of the 
most celebrated of French women, was born at Paris, 1754. Her father 
was an engraver, and she received an uncommonly liberal education 
for the times. Plutarch's "Lives" were her delight from her ninth 
year; from them she derived her love of liberty and her entliusiastic 
admiration for whatever was great and noble in character. In 17so, she 
married M. Roland, then Inspector-general of Manufactures; .•it'tirwanls 
as a Girondist, to hold high office In the government. The two visited 
England and Switzerland, where their love of constitutional freedom 
became even stronger than before. Mme. Roland, especially, by lier 
genius and the charms of her conversation, became the " inspiring soul " 
of the Girondist party. When her husband, in 1792, was Minister of the 
Interior, she composed some of his most important state-papers. In 
May, 1793, having oeeu procribed by the Jacobins, M. Roland took ref- 
uge in the country. His wife remained in Paris and was thrown into 
prison. On the scaffold, recalling tier lifelong enthusiasm for the very 
watcli-words which were now falsely used for her condemnation, she 
exclaimed, "O Liberty! wliat crimes are committed in thy name!" 

2. Charlotte Corday, born in Normandy, 1768, spent several of her 
early years in a convent at Caen, where she was noted for her sweet 
and earnest piety. In appearance, she was tall, beautiful, and of com- 
manding di nity. She syinpathized warmly with the new movements 
for popular rights, so far as they were orderly and just, but mourned 
the proscription of the Gn-ondists and the brutal excesses to which the 
revolutionary mania had run. By a long course of silent meditation, 
she came to the resolution to save many lives, by the sacrifice of her 
own. She was executed in July, 1793. 

4. Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, Corsica, in August, 1769. 
His father had been one of the bravest defenders of that Island again.st 
the French, but it was conquered a few months before Napoleon's birth, 
so that he was born a subject of the Bourbons. Before he was ten years 
of age, the little Napoleon quitted his home for the military college at 
Brienne. He could speak only Italian, was poor, and suffered much 
from the rudeness of his fellow-students; but he was diligent in study, 
and gave proof already of those wonderful talents for war and adminis- 
tration, in which he surpassed almost every man who has ever lived. 
He was fund of history' especially deligiiting in the writings of Cfesar, 
Plutarch, and Arrian. His military education was completed at Paris, 
and he became captain of artillery in February, 1792, 



394 MODERN HISTORY. 



The chief events of his life are narrated in the text. In comparing 
him witli tlie two or tliree other generals of the first rank whom History 
has described, it has been remarked that Csesar had, perhaps, more 
fertility of invention, but no great ruler was ever so completely the 
arcliitect of his own fortunes as Napoleon. "Cyrus and Alexander each 
inherited as his birthright a powerful kingdom; Hannibal and Cffisar 
were respectively the representatives of high and Influential families. 
Napoleon, on the contrary, except his energy and genius, possessed not 
a single advantage that might not have fallen to the lot of the hum- 
blest citizen of France." 

5. Horatio Nelson, born in Norfolk, England, 17.58, distinguished 
himself, even in boyhood, by liis brave, impetuous, and energetic char- 
acter. At the age of 13 he entered the navy, served soine years in the 
East Indies, and fought in several battles of the American Revolution. 
In 17y3, he obtained command of a sliip in the Mediterranean fleet, had 
part in a victory over the .Spaniards four years later, at Cape St. Vin- 
cent, and rose to the rank of Rear Admiral. In an attack on Tenerifiie, 
he lost his rigiit arm. 

In the Battle of the Baltic, 1801, he was second in command to Sir 
Hyde Parker, and his obstinacy won the day. 

Off Cape Trafalgar he encountered 40 French and Spanish ships, his 
own numbering only 31. Before the flght began, he signaled from his 
miast-head, "England expects every man to do his duty." Southey pro- 
nounces him "the greatest naval hero of our own and of all former 
times." His memorj' is svarmly cherished by tlie English people. 

e. Arthur "Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, was born in Ireland, 
1769, four months earlier than the young Coi"sican who was to be his 
chief antagonist. He was educated at Eton, and at a military school in 
France, and, in 1787, was commissioned as ensign. In 1794, he served 
in the Netherlands under the command of the Duke of York. Becom- 
ing colonel in 1790, he was ordered to India, where his eldest brother, 
Lord Mornington, was soon afterward made Governor-General. War 
soon broke out with Tippoo Saliib, son of Hyder All (see note 2, Ch. XII), 
and Colonel Wellesky distiuguised himself by his euei'g.y and sagacit5', 
both in military matters and afterwards as Governor of Seringapatam. 
Returning to Enghiml in 1SU5, he was elected the next year to a seat in 
the House of Commons, and, in 1807, became Chief Secretary for Ireland. 
His greatest military fame was attained in the Peninsular War. At 
first the French bore down all before tliem, " Wellington was aware," 
says a French writer, "that Fortune could not change sides at a leap, . . 
and that before acquiring the art of gaining great victories it was neces- 
sary to begin by learning to avoid defeats." By constructing his triple 
lines of defense at Torres Vedras, near Lisbon, and by his firm, but patient 
and cautious method of warfare, profiting by every blunder of his adver- 
saries, he succeeded at length in overthrowing French ascendency in Spain 
and Poi'tugal. His success was largely due to the confidence which 
he inspired by his perfect integrity and truthfulness. Both in the 
Peninsula and in France, he compelled the troops to respect private 
property, and thus in time gained tlie goodwill of the people among 
whom he was obliged to pass. For his repeated successes in Spain he 
was raised to the peerage, first as Baron Douro of Wellesley, and Viscount 
Wellington of Talavera, subsequently as Marquis, and finally, Duke of 
Wellington. 

Tlie battle of W^aterloo was fought June 18, 1815. It was the object 
of Napoleon to defeat Wellington before Blucher could arrive with his 
Prussian Army; and to this end lie put forth his mightiest efforts. They 
were vain, for, at 4 p. m. Iti.UOO Prussians arrived upon the field, and 
the day was lost. 

Wellington and the allied armies entered Paris, July 7, and the duke 
was subsequently appointed to command the army of occupation (§715), 
which, for five years— afterwards, by Wellington's advice, reduced to 
tliree— was to keep France in subjection. In England, he held several 
higli positions in the government, of which he was for some years at 
the head; always distinguished by liis strict Tory or conservative prin- 
ciples, wliicli led him to oppose i>ai liamcntary reform (^fi57). He died 
18.52; and his burial in St. Paul's Catludral was commemorated by Ten' 
nyson the Poet Laureate, in a grand Ode. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ABSOLUTISTS AND LIBERALS IN EUROPE. 




A. D. 1815. 



I HE wars of the French Revolution were 
now ended, and a grand congress of sovereigns, or their 
representatives, met at Vienna, to consult to- 
gether for the restoration of order. The "bal- 
ance of power" which they then arranged, lasted more 
than forty years. 

715. Prussia received back her lost territories and more; 
so that she now became one of the Five Great Powers. 
Austria was consoled for the loss of the Netherlands by 
all of northern Italy, except the kingdom of Sardinia. 
France, Spain, and Naples were again subjected to the 
Bourbons ; and humiliated France had to maintain a 
foreign army of 150,000 men, who were quartered upon 
her frontier, to keep her from again disturbing the general 
peace. 

716. Thirty-nine German sovereigns and free cities 
formed a new confederation, with its capital at Frankfort- 

(395) 



396 MODERN HISTORY. 

on-the-Main. Holland and Belgium were united in the 
kingdom of the Netherlands, with the Prince of Orange 
for their king. The Five Great Powers — Great Britain, 
France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia — held themselves 
responsible for maintaining the balance of power, by in- 
terfering in behalf of any state which might be injured 
and unable to defend itself. 

717. The czari proposed to the other sovereigns a 
Holy Alliance, binding them to ' ' remain united in true 
brotherly love ; to govern their subjects as parents, and to 
maintain religion, peace, and justice." This promised 
well, but it Avas soon found that the allied sovereigns 
meant to be very despotic "parents," by no means allow- 
ing their children to act or think for themselves. Hence 
arose a conflict between Absolutism and Liberalism, which 
led at last to the revolutions of 1848. 

718. Spain, trying to throw off the stupid tyranny of 
Ferdinand VH. — who had restored the Inquisition and 
all the abuses of his ancestors — was subdued by a French 
army of 100,000 men, under the influence of the Alliance. 
The liberal constitution was overthrown, and absolute des- 
potism restored. In Italy multitudes of Liberals joined 
themselves in secret societies to resist the Hapsburgs in 
the north and the Bourbons in the south (§634). 

719. That of the Carbonari (charcoal-men) numbered 
half a million. In 1820, they made an open attack upon 
the government at Naples in such force that the king 
granted all they asked — the Spanish "Constitution of 
1812" and a Liberal ministry. The Holy Alliance again 
interfered, and an Austrian army restored despotism in 
Naples. The rule of the Hapsburgs, in northern Italy, 
was, if possible, more odious than that of the Bourbons. 
Persons who were only suspected^ of symj^athy with the 
Carbonari, suddenly disappeared, and spent the rest of 
their lives in solitary dungeons. 



THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 397 

720. Liberalism was kept alive, in Germany, by the 
youth in the Universities, whose high spirits doubtless 
taxed the patience of the paternal governments. Some 
outbreak of eloquence, on the third centennial of the 
Reformation, brought a reprimand from the Alliance. A 
half crazy student of Jena thereupon murdered Kotzebue,^ 
the Russian consul ; and the sovereigns, fancying some 
wide-spread conspiracy, insisted upon taking away the 
freedom of the Universities. 

721. The revolt of the Greeks against the cruel oppres- 
sions of the Turks was met in the same spirit ; but that 
brave people persevered until their independence was won. 
Prince Ypsilanti,'' in 1821, publicly announced that the 
servitude of four hundred years was ended, and that 
Greece was determined to be free. Hundreds of Greek 
students hastened to enroll themselves in a Sacred Band, 
bearing upon their shields the Spartan motto, "Either 
this or on this." The Turks tried to crush the movement 
by atrocious massacres; the Sacred Band was cut to pieces, 
and the beautiful isle of Scio was laid waste ; forty thou- 
sand of its people perished, while the strongest and most 
beautiful youth were dragged away to the Turkish slave- 
markets. 

722. The next year Marco Bozzaris^and his Suliote band 
fell upon a Turkish camp by night and gained a complete 
victory, with the loss of his own life. Though governments 
might be indifferent or hostile, the people all over Europe 
were thrilled with sympathy for the Greeks ; money, food 
and clothing were supplied, and many volunteers sought the 
honor of serving in their ranks {§656). At last the govern- 
ments of Great Britain, France and Russia were moved to 
interfere, and their combined fleets defeated the Turks in 
the Bay of Navarino. 

723. The soul of the Holy Alliance departed when Alex- 
ander I. died, in 1825. His brother Nicholas, who succeeded 



398 MODERN HISTORY. 



him, coveted the Turkish possessions on the Black Sea, and 
his movements in that direction forced the suhan to ac- 
knowledge the indej^endence of the Greeks. Prince Otho 
of Bavaria^ was chosen to be their king, under the influence 
of the allied powers. 

724. In 1830 the Liberal spirit became powerful enough 
to accomplish several peaceful revolutions. Charles X., who 
had succeeded his brother Louis XVIII. as king of France, 
offended the people l)y limiting the freedom of the press 
and of voting. He was forced to resign his crown and 
take refuge in Great Britain. The duke of Orleans,'^ son of 
Egalite, was called to the throne as "King of the French," 
with a liberal constitution, much like that of England. 

725. Belgium at the same time separated from Holland 

and chose Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg to be its king. 

The Poles made a brave but vain effort to throw off the 

harsh yoke of the Russians, which was made harder to them 

by the tyrannical temper of the \iceroy, the grand-duke 

Constantine, brother of the czar. Their very nationality 

was now blotted out; So, 000 ijatriots were sent 

A. D. 1832. . ., . , ' , - 

m one year to toil m the frozen deserts of 

Siberia; and children were even separated from their 

parents to be trained in military colonies. 

726. Lender the reign of Louis Philippe, France enjoyed 
some years of peace and prosperity. Still, the "citizen- 
king " found it impossible to please all parties. Strict mon- 
archists thought that no one could rightfully reign over 
France excepting Henry V., the grandson of Charles X.; 
Bonapartists longed for the military glories of the Empire; 
and a growing multitude of Liberals desired a French Re- 
public. A severe loss was felt in the death of the duke 
of Orleans, the heir to the crown, whom all men loved and 
trusted. 

727. The king's interference in the Spanish marriages 
hastened his fall. Ferdinand VII. had died in 1833, 



REl'OLUTION OF i? 



399 



leaving only two little daughters, the oldest of whom was 
three years old. His brother, Don Carlos, claimed the 
crown under the "Salic Law" (§405), but Louis Philippe 
and a strong party in Spain upheld the little queen, who 
afterward became the too noted Isabella IL The French 
king wished to increase his own power by choosing hus- 
bands for the queen and her sister. To the former he 
allotted the half-idiotic Francis of Assis, but for her sister, 
whom he thought likelier to live and reign, he destined 
his own son, the duke of Montpensier. The marriages 
both took place, but the Orleans Dynasty was less benefited 
by them than had been hoped. 

728. The Liberals were now powerful in France ; and 
at one of their great Reform Banquets in the open air, the 
usual toast to the king was omitted, while the "sovereignty 
of the people" was received with great applause. The 
government tried to suppress the next meeting of this 
kind, at which 100,000 people were expected to be present. 
The guns of the forts were pointed inward 

upon the city, and 60,000 soldiers were ready e ., i 4 . 

to fire upon the mob. This aroused the fury of the lowest 
class of the people, who, swarming together from their 
dens and cellars, barricaded the streets and raised the cry, 
"Long live the Republic!" 

729. The king and his sons fled, but the widowed 
duchess of Orleans'' came with her little son into the revo- 
lutionary assembly, — calm and undaunted, though weapons 
were aimed at her heart. She reminded the deputies of 
her husband's exalted character, and promised that she 
would teach his son to be like him, true to the people. 
But a voice from the tribune cried, "Too late!" and a 
republic was proclaimed. 

730. National workshops were now opened, where all 
who applied found employment and wages. But this plan, 
though it seemed benevolent, proved very dangerous; 



400 MODERX HISTORY. 



100,000 workmen were soon massed together in the public 
shops, and any attempt to control them aroused their fury. 
The attempt to abate this peril by dismissing a great num- 
ber of men led to a terrible four days' battle in the streets 
of Paris. General Cavaignac^by his cool, wise and prompt 
measures restored order. A new constitution was now 
adopted, and Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, ^ ** a nephew of the 
emperor, became president of the French Republic. 

731. The Liberals were every-where in arms, especially 
in Germany, Hungary and Italy, and the year 1848 was 
marked by revolutions all over Europe. In a riot at 
Vienna, the war-minister La Tour was beaten to death by 
the mob, and the Emperor Ferdinand fled, leaving his 
capital in their hands. He soon afterward resigned in 
favor of his nephew, Francis Joseph I. 

732. The Hungarians revolted against the long-hated 
dominion of the Hapsburgs, and set up a republic with 
Louis Kossuth at its head. Many Poles, having no country 
of their own, became " soldiers of liberty" and rendered 
good service to the Hungarians, while the Czar Nicholas 
sent armies to the aid of his Austrian ally. The brave 
Hungarians were unable to hold out long against the com- 
bined forces of despotism. In May, 1849, the brutal field- 
marshal Haynau, who had crushed the revolution in northern 
Italy, was placed at the head of the Austrian armies, and 
by a great victory at Temesvar, overthrew the republic. 
Kossuth resigned, and Gorgei was made dictator ; but 
within two days Gorgei surrendered his whole army with 
its cannon and stores to the Russians. Kossuth and a 
few companions escaped into Turkey, where they were 
kindly received by the Sultan, the hereditary foe of the 
Czar; a few years later he visited America, where his 
eloquent speeches awakened great sympathy for his op- 
pressed countrymen. 

733. The Italian insurgents were scarcely more successful 



JOSEPH GARIBALDI. 40 1 

in their stroke for liberty; but one important step was 
gained in the acknowledged leadership of the House of 
Savoy, which, ten years later, secured the unity and inde- 
pendence of Italy. Pope Pius IX. had begun his reign in 
1846 with liberal measures, which excited great hopes; but 
when the people demanded war against Austria in aid of 
the Lombard insurgents, he refused. His minister, Count 
Rossi, was murdered, and the pope's palace was assaulted, 
but he himself escaped to Gaeta. 

734. Among the noted actors in the Italian revolution 
was Joseph Garibaldi, a defender of freedom, and a foe 
to despotism in every form. Garibaldi entered Rome with 
a band of volunteers; and an Assembly was 

called, which deposed the pope and proclaimed 
a republic with Mazzini at- its head. The French president 
sent an army to the aid of Pope Pius ; it was defeated by 
Garibaldi before the walls of Rome ; but after more troops 
arrived from France, the city was taken and the republic 
was overthrown, July 3, 1849. 

735. In (Jermany a national parliament proposed to re- 
vive the Empire and to place the king of Prussia at its 
head. But Frederic William IV. refused the crown, and 
for some years the multitude of German states were less 
united than ever. Most of the petty sovereigns gave free 
constitutions to their people; /. c, they conceded freedom 
of speech and of the press, and shared the law-making 
power with representatives chosen by ballot. 

Point out the dominions of the Hapsburgs in Hungary, Germany, 
and Italy. Of the Bourbons in Spain and Italy. See §740. 

Note. — The kingdom of Naples had been conferred upon Charles 
VI. of Austria, by the treaty of Rastadt, in 1714 (see §630), but in 
1734 it was conquered by the Spanish Bourbons, and reunited with 
Sicily under a younger branch of that family. §634. 

Read Dyer's Modern Europe; "Memoirs" of Guizot and De 
Tocqueville. 

Hist. — 26. 



402 MODERN HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. This was Alexander I., son of Paul I. of Russia, and grandson of 
Catherine the Great (§ti()8 and note). Born at St. I't'tcrsburg, in 1777, lie 
was educated under the special care of his grandnn it licr. wiio herself wrote 
stories for his amusement and instruction, and designed that he should 
be her immediate successor, to the exclusion of liis fatlier. Paul, how- 
ever, destroyed the will, and rcignccl tivc years after his mother's death, 
before his foolish and tyrannical conduct provoke<l the conspiracy which 
ended his life. Alexander came to the throne at tlie age of 84, a far 
nobler and better sovereign than any of his pi-edecessors. The invasion 
of his dominions in 1X12 (*i70f<), roused all the energy of his nature, and 
from that time until his death he held a foremost place in European 
politics. Since the Peace of Tilsit (i* 703) he had been a friend of Na- 
poleon; henceforth he was a powerful but generous enemy. In 1814, he 
protected Paris from the rage of his own soldieis, and obtained for Na- 
poleon the most favorable terms that the allies would grant. He liber- 
ated 150,000 French prisoners of war who had been detained in Russia, 
and freely forgave all his own subjects who had taken part against him. 
He labored with great diligence for the reform of abuses in every part 
of his government, both military and civil. But with all the czar's 
humane intentions, he dared not trust his people with the smallest 
degree of freedom; his Idea of his own duty involved the exercise of 
absolute control, like that of a wise and powerful parent over very 
young and ignorant children. In his later years, his morbid hatred 
of revolutions grew upon him, and he devoted most of his energy to 
the repression of liberal movements, not only in his own dominions, 
but in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Germany. He died, December, 1825, 
and, having no son, was succeeded by his brother Nicholas. (*f)62 and 
note 8. 

2. Silvio Pellico, an Ita.ian poet, has given in his beautiful narra- 
tive, "My Prisons," a true account of the sufterings inflicted in Austrian 
dungeons. For no other crime than membership in a secret society, he 
was immured for eight years in the fortress of Spielberg, Moravia. He 
was a man of refined culture, a friend of Lords Brougham and Byron 
and of Mme. de Stael. 

3. Kotzebue was a German dramatist of some merit, born in Wei- 
mar, 1761. At the age of 20 he entered the Russian service, and was 
made governor of Esthonia, and, some years later, in 1817, was charged 
by Alexander I. with the task of watching and rei)orting to him the 
movements of the popular mind in (ierniany. Kotzebue had already 
made himself odious to many Germans l)y his openly cxpi-essed con- 
tempt for liberal opinions, and Karl Luflwig Sand put him to death as 
a "traitor to liberty." 

4. Alexander Ypsilanti, one of a family of patriotic statesmen, was 
born at Constantinople, 1792. He fought with distinction in the Russian 
armies, and, at the age of 25, attaineil the rank of major-general. In 
1820 he was made president of the Hetaeria, a secret society formed for 
the promotion of Greek independence. He was imprisoned six years 
in an Austrian dungeon, and, though released at the intercession of the 
Czar Nicholas, whose father he had so ably served, he died a year after 
his release, in 1828. His brother Dimitri commanded the army of free- 
dom in Eastern Greece, 1828-1832. 

5. Marco Bozzaris was born at Suli, in Albania, about 1790, served 
in the army of Napoleon, 1808-1815, but threw him.self with zeal into the 
Greek Revolution as soon as it broke out, in 1820. He became general 
of the forces of Western Greece in 1822, and fell the next year in his as- 
sault upon a Turkish camp. This event has been immortalized by our 
American poet, Fitz Greene Halleck. 

6. Otho was a son of King Ludwig 1. of Bavaria. He was born 1815. 
and chosen in 1832 to be king of the Greeks. In many respects his reign 
proved uncongenial to his people. The allies had meant to make him 
an arbitrarv sovereign, l)ut, in 1843, the people demanded a representa- 



NOTES. 403 

tive assembly, and the king was compelled to yield. In 1862 he resigned 
his erown, and the next year Prince George of Denmark, brother of 
the Princess of Wales, became king of the Hellenes. 

7. Tliis was Louis Philippe, eldest son of Philippe Egalit^ (§088), whose 
cruel desertion of his cousin's cause did not save his own head from 
the guillotine. 

The younger prince was a better man than his father. He had im- 
bibed liberal principles in his childhood while acquiring habits of pru- 
dence and self-control under the teachings of his governess, Mme. de 
Genlis, and he favored the popular cause in the French Revolution. 
He had need for all that he hud learned during the strange adventures 
of his exile, for as a prince he could hardly escape the suspicions of 
the successive revolutionary governments, though he had served iu 
their armies against tho Austrians. At one time he was a professor in 
a German college under an assumed name; at another, teaching French 
iu tlie United States; and afterwards, for eight years, a resident In En- 
gland. When Ijouis XVIII. came to the thi-one in 1814, the duke of 
Orleans returned to France, and received all the honors and estates 
that were his by inheritance. He affected popular manners, and even 
displeased the king (Charles X.), by sending his sons to the public 
.schools and colleges, but he kept aloof from public affairs until the 
revolution of 1880 called him to the throne. 

Though peaceful as far as Europe was concerned, the reign of Louis 
Phllii^pe was marked by the beginning of French conquests in Africa. 
Algeria became a military colony of France; and it was not till 1871 
that a civil government was established in the settled districts. After 
the king's abdication, he retired to England, where he died at his estate 
f>f Claremont, LSoO. 

8. Helene Louise Elisabeth, Duchess of Orleans, was a German 
princess of l)tautiful and noljle cliaracter — a daughter of the Grand Duke 
of Mecklenburg Schwerin. She retired to England with the rest of the 
royal family and died at Richmond in 18.58. 

9. General Louis Eugene de Cavaignac had jiroved and developed 
his military talents in Algeria, where he served, 1832-1848, when, in the 
year of revolutions, he was called home to defend the government 
against the Parisian mob. The Assembly invested him with absolute 
power, but as soon as order was restored he resigned his dictatorship, 
only to be called immediately to the position of President of the Re- 
public under the provisional government. This place he held six 
months, until a general election had decided in favor of Bouaj^arte for 
permanent president. He then took his seat in the Assembly as a 
moderate Republican. After the empire was declared, he refused to 
take the oath of allegiance, and retired to private life, leaving an un- 
sullied record. 

10. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was a son of Louis, king of Holland 
(?j;708, 707), brother of the Emperor Napoleon I., and of Hortense, daugh- 
ter of the Empress Josephine. Born at the palace of the Tuileries, 1808. 
he, at seven years of age, became an exile with his mother, upon the 
fall of the empire. On the death, in 18.32, of his cousin, the king of 
Rome (ii70()), he Ijecame tlie representative of the Bonapartist claims; 
and, in i8:{li, made a foolish and unsuccessful attemjit, with a fcM' follow- 
ers, at a capture of Strasburg. Being ariested, he was soon set at lib- 
erty and took rel'nge in the Ignited Slates. Four years later, he made 
an ((lually vain attack upon Bouloiiue, and this time was sentenced 
to i)erpetnal imprisonment in the fortress of Ham. After six years he 
made his escape, and lived for two years in London. The revolution of 
181.S opened a way for his return to France, where he was elected in 
.Tune to be a member of the National Assembly, and, in the following 
December, to be President of the Republic for four years. 

The remaining events of his life belong to general history. His lit- 
erary tastes were exercised, before liis accession to power, chiefly in 
writings on political and military subjects, his most noted work being 
"Napoleonic Ideas," iniblisbed in 18,S9. After he became emperor, he 
commenced, but never tinished, a " Life of Cwsar," in which he is sup- 
posed to have designed a double parallel between his imperial uncle 
and the great Julius; and between himself and Augustus (see g? 238, 239). 



CHAPTER XV. 



THK SECOND FRENCH EMPIRE. 




A Prussian Soldier. 



HE French Republic, like that of 
half a century before, was soon 
exchanged for an imperial govern- 
ment. Having first placed at the 
head of the army men who were 
committed to his plans, President 
Bonaparte caused the principal 
generals and statesmen of France 
to be suddenly seized and impris- 
oned during the night following 
December i, 185 1. An army was 
already massed in Paris, the news- 
l)aper offices were occupied by 
soldiers, and the morning editions 
suppressed, while the government 
printers were setting up placards 
which appeared before daylight on 
all the walls. 



737. These declared the capital in a state of siege, the 
National Assembly dissolved, and called for a new election 
by universal suffrage. The telegraph told the remotest 
corners of France that the revolution was already accom- 
plished, and that Bonaparte was responsible head of the 
government for ten years. The deputies, protesting, were 
carted away to prison ; and the Supreme Court was broken 
up by an armed force. The coup d'etat seemed to have 
succeeded without bloodshed, for the jjrosperous classes 
(404) 



UNIFICATION OF ITALY. 405 



liked any thing better than anarchy, or the reign of the 
mob; and all who remembered the First Empire felt sure 
of a strong and efificient government under a Bonaparte. 

738. But, on December 4, • the army in the streets began 
to fire, apparently without orders, upon a throng of peace- 
able citizens; multitudes more were massacred in prison, 
and 26,500 were transported to Cayenne on the African 
coast. Whatever resistance there might have been, was 
now crushed: the people conferred the whole executive 
power on Louis Napoleon Bonaparte for ten years ; and 
the next autumn, by a similar vote, he became "Napoleon 
III,* by the grace of God and the will of the people, 
Emperor of the French." 

739. The war in the Crimea, in which France and 
England were the allies of the Turks against Russia, has 
been described (§§662-665). ^t was brought about 
mainly by Napoleon, who wished to please his army and 
nation by a taste of military glory, such as they associ- 
ated with his uncle's name. The war was ended by the 
treaty of Paris, 1856; and, soon afterward, France became 
the ally of Victor Emanuel,^ king of Sardinia, in a war 
against Austria. 

740. Brave men from all the states of Italy sought the 
camp of Victor Emanuel, and the contest which followed 
is called the War of Italian Nationality. The Austrian 
rulers of Tuscany, Modena, and Parma fled from their mis- 
governed dominions, and their armies joined the allies, who 
gained decisive victories at Montebello, Palestro, 

and Magenta. To the latter, (ieneral McMahon ' ' ^^' 

contributed by coming up with reserves at the right moment, 
and he was rewarded with the rank of Marshal of France 
and Duke of Magenta." 



* His cousin, the King of Rome (^706), had died near Vienna, 
in 1852. 



4o6 MODERN HISTORY. 

741. A few days later Napoleon and Victor Emanuel 
entered Milan in triumph. The last great battle of the war 
was fought at Solferino, June 24; and, by the treaty of Villa- 
franca, P>ancis Joseph surrendered all his claims to Lom- 
bardy and the protection of the three duchies. The next 
year Sicily was conquered by Garibaldi and his volunteers, 
and the Bourbon king, Francis II., fled from Naples. The 
Two Sicilies united of their own accord with the Kingdom 
of Italy, which now embraced the whole peninsula excepting 
the territories of Rome and Venice. French troops still oc- 
cupied Rome and protected the sovereignty of the pope. 

742. Napoleon III. was now at the height of his power, 
and his history is inseparable from that of all Europe. In 
1 86 1 he even interfered in American affiiirs, by assuming 
a protectorate of the "Latin Race" on that continent. 
Mexico was in a state of revolution, and a French army, 
occupying its capital, secured a vote for an hereditary em- 
pire in place of the republic. The archduke Maximilian,^ 
brother of Francis Joseph, was chosen emperor under 
French influence; and entered the City of Mexico with the 
Empress Carlotta in June, 1864. President Juarez removed 
the seat of his government to Monterey, and war between 
the empire and the republic went on for three years with 
varying fortunes. In 1867, the French troops having been 
withdrawn, Maximilian was taken prisoner and was shot at 
Queretaro. The republic was reestablished. 

743. Napoleon had now met a powerful opponent to his 
management of European affairs. This was Count von 
Bismarck,'* the Prussian chancellor, who had resolved to see 
his sovereign at the head of united Germany. Austria and 
Prussia had lately engaged together in the Schleswig-Holstein 
war, which ended in the separation of those duchies from 
Denmark; but, in the division of the spoils, a new war 
arose — a short but very decisive contest, which revolution- 
ized Germany. 



I 



THE SEVEN WEEKS' WAR. 407 

744. The Prussian armies had been thoroughly reor- 
ganized; the infantry had the needle-gun, which, for swift- 
ness and accuracy in firing, had never been surpassed. The 
king of Italy made a close alliance with Prussia, and attacked 
the Austrians at Custozza with less good fortune 

, , ■ , r • 1 ^„ • • ^ A. D. 1866. 

than his northern friends. 1 he main action of 
the "Seven Weeks' War" was the battle of Sadowa, where 
the needle-gun won the day for the Prussians, while the 
white-coated Austrian cavalry, — hitherto considered the best 
and bravest in Euro])e, — was put to flight by the Uhlans. 

745. By the treaty of Prague, Austria withdrew at once 
from Germany and Italy, ceding Venetia to Victor Eman- 
uel, and recognizing Prussia as the head of the North 
German Confederation, which succeeded to the arrangement 
of 1815 (§716). Thus shorn of his German and Italian 
dominions, Francis Joseph took the wise course of reforming 
his own hereditary states. A representative parliament was 
convened at Vienna, which in a single session swept away 
abuses of a thousand years, making all classes, religions, and 
races equal before the laws. The "Austro-Hungarian Mon- 
archy" is now as liberal as any in Europe. 

746. The swift and surprising changes made by the 
Seven Weeks' War were little relished by Napoleon III., 
who had thought that his aid would be needed by Prussia. 
Several little diplomatic moves, — made in order to regain 
his lost importance, — were quietly checkmated by Bismarck, 
but at length a revolution in Spain afforded the desired 
cause of war. 

747. Isabella II. had been compelled to quit her kingdom 
and take refuge in France, while the reign of the Spanish 
Bourbons was declared to be ended. Many candidates 
sought the vacant throne, — among them a new Don Carlos, 
grandson of the queen's uncle (§ 727). But Carlos was the 
representative of absolutism and priestcraft, and the Span- 
iards had no mind to crown another Philip II. They invited 



4o8 MODERN HISTORY. 

Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, a very distant relative of 
the king of Prussia, to be their sovereign. Napoleon chose 
to consider this as a Prussian aggression, though King 
William I. declared that he had nothing to do with the 
matter, and could not prevent Leopold's taking the crown 
if he chose it. Leopold himself refused to be a candidate, 
as soon as he heard of the excitement at Paris. 

748. All was in vain. The French armies began their 
march, to the Rhine on the day of Leopold's resignation. 
On July 19th, Napoleon declared war against Prussia, and, 
leaving the Empress Eugenie as regent during his absence, 
went to the frontier with his son. It was soon found that 
the French army was unfit for service. No regiment was 
full, and no supplies of food were provided. Thousands of 
men went starving into battle, and it is no wonder that the 
gallant army which left Paris so gayly for the "march to 
Berlin" found itself unable even to defend France. 

749. The Prussians were drilled, fed and equipped to the 
highest degree of efficiency, and, when joined by the South- 
German forces, had more than twice the numbers of the 
French. Napoleon gained a slight advantage at Saar- 
briicken, but it was almost the last of the French victories. 
Three German armies crossed the frontier into France. The 
Crown Prince threatened Paris ; while his cousin Frederic 
Charles three times severely defeated Bazaine, who was now 
at the head of the main French army, and finally shut him 
up in Metz with his whole command. 

750. McMahon was meanwhile mustering a new force 
for the relief of Bazaine; but the Crown Prince contrived 
to crowd him back upon Sedan, where, after a tremendous 
battle, the fortress itself and the whole French army, includ- 
ing cannon, horses and 108,000 men, were surrendered to 
the Germans. The French emperor, who was with Mc- 
Mahon, surrendered himself, September 2d, 1870, and 
remained for a time a prisoner at Wilhelmshohe, an old 



THE SIEGE OF PARIS. 409 

palace of his uncle, King Jerome. He died at Chiselhurst, 
in England, the 9th of January, 1873. 

751. Paris was filled with terror; the Crown Prince and 
his victorious army were daily expected at her gates. The 
Legislative Assembly declared that the empire had ceased 
to exist. The Empress-Regent and her son took refuge in 
England, and a provisional republic was proclaimed with 
General Trochu at its head. A large party in France now- 
desired peace. The king of Prussia had constantly declared 
that he had no quarrel with the French people, but only 
with their emperor who had insulted him ; but he now de- 
manded Alsace and Lorraine (^617), while the republic, 
though willing to pay a large amount of money, refused to 
cede an "inch of its land or a stone of its fortresses.'' For 
this cause the war went on. 

752. On September 18, the Crown Prince took up his 
quarters at Versailles and his armies besieged Paris. Gam- 
betta, escaping in a balloon, joined some other members of 
the provisional government at Tours, which was for a time 
the French capital. Strasburg was taken by the Germans, 
September 28, after a fierce cannonade ; and a month later 
Bazaine surrendered the stronghold of Metz, with his army 
of 180,000 men and officers and an immense number of 
cannon. 

753. Germany gained its long-desired unity, while France 
was on the verge of ruin. All the German states joined in 
requesting the king of Prussia to assume the imperial crown. 
This time (§735) the offer was accepted, and the Emi)eroi' 
William L was crowned in the great hall at 

, . , Jiin , 1871, 

Versailles. Pans at last was starved into sub- 
mission. On the 28th of January, 187 1, the sixteen fort^ 
which formed her outer circle of defense were surrendered. 
Three weeks' truce was allowed so that the French peoi)le 
might vote for a new government. A rei)ul)lic was pro- 
claimed, and Thiers^ was chosen as its president. The.gov- 



4IO 



MODERN HISTORY. 



ernment made peace with Germany, ceding Alsace and 
Lorraine and engaging to pay one thousand millions of 
dollars as war indemnity to the conqueror. 

754. A still greater calamity now befell Paris. That 
fierce, ignorant and lawless rabble, which had made the 
worst element in all previous revolutions, gained control of 
the city, while the rightful government was forced to retire 
to Versailles. Many battles were fought for the forts south 
of Paris. Strong parties in other great cities sympathized 
with the Commune, for it was suspected that Thiers' govern- 
ment favored a restoration of monarchy, while the towns 
were uniformly republican. 

755- ^^ictory at last remained with the Versailles forces; 
and the Communists, becoming desperate, fired Paris with 
trains of petroleum, destroying the Tuileries, the Hotel de 
Ville and other splendid buildings. The archbishop of Paris 
and many others were wantonly murdered, and the desola- 
tion wrought by the Commune far exceeded that of the 
German siege. 

756. The French troops having meanwhile been with- 
drawn from Rome, that city was occupied by Victor Eman- 
uel, and the people of the States of the Church signified, 
by an almost unanimous vote, their desire to be 
ct., 1870. miited with the Kingdom of Italy. Pope Pius 
IX.^ was recognized in all his dignities as head of the 
Roman Church; and princely revenues were secured to 
him, with undisturbed possession of the Leonine City 
(§3°5); ^'■^'^ his temporal sovereignty ceased to exist. 

The first months of 1878 were marked by the death of 
the two chief actors in recent Italian affairs. King Victor 
Emanuel died, January 9, in the Quirinal Palace at Rome; 
and Pope Pius IX., February 7, in the Vatican. Humbert I. 
succeeded his father as king of united Italy, and Cardinal 
Pecci became Pope Leo XIII. Under several able minis- 
ters, .Italy has gained importance among European states. 



THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 411 

757. In 1873, Thiers having resigned, Marshal McMahon 
was chosen to be president, for seven years, of the French 
repubhc. The war debt was promptly i)aid by a popular 
loan, and in spite of this enormous tax upon the industry 
of the people, the national finances were restored to a 
healthy and prosperous condition. A year before the ex- 
piration of the " Septennat " McMahon resigned his office, 
and M. Grevy, President of the Chamber of Deputies, was 
chosen to succeed him. Oambetta, — always a leading 
spirit in the republic, through his great abilities and his 
liberal policy, — became President of the Deputies, and in 
November, 1881, was placed at the head of the Cabinet. 
The seat of government was removed from Versailles to 
Paris in June, 1879. 

The same month. Prince Louis Napoleon, son of the late 
Emperor (§750), was killed in a fight with the Zulus in 
southern Africa. He had named his cousin. Prince Victor, 
to succeed him at the head of the Bonapartists, who still 
hope to regain the ascendancy in France. 

758. Spain, after a short-lived republic, and a two years' 
attempt at constitutional monarchy under Amadeo, son of 
the king of Italy, restored her Bourbon line in the person 
of Alfonso XII., son of the ex-queen Isabella. Alfonso 
guaranteed freedom of worship and some provision for pop- 
ular instruction, and invited the Jews, after their exile of 
centuries (p. 191), to return to Spain. Under this en- 
lightened policy, it may be hoped that the great peninsula, 
so richly endowed by nature, will in time recover from the 
effects of ages of misrule. 

759. It is long since the Turks, as conquerors (§§560, 
563), threatened the peace of Europe ; but the \ast interests 
of England and Russia, in the East, render them jealous 
of any changes in the Turkish territories. Meanwhile the 
Christian subjects of the Sultan have had to suffer intoler- 
able oppressions. In June, 1875, '^^^ \\\.\\q province of 



4 1 2 MODEHy HIS roR Y. 

Herzegovina revolted, •with the hearty sympathy of her 
neighbors. The next May the French and German consuls 
at Salonica were murdered by a Turkish mob. Russia, 
Austria, and Germany then united in what is called the 
"Berlin Memorandum," requiring Turkey to reform her 
government, and give security of life and property to 
Mussulmans and Christians alike. England refused to join 
in the demand ; and within a month Bulgaria was the 
scene of horrid brutalities by the Turks. All Europe was 
inflamed with indignation ; Servia and Montenegro declared 
war, with secret aid from Russia; the Sultan, Abd-el-Aziz, 
was deposed, and probably m.urdered l)y his ministers; and 
in December, 1876, a conference of six great powers met 
at Constantinople. The Turkish government refusing to 
accede to their demands, the Czar declared war, and 
marched his armies to the Danube and into Armenia. 

760. Fierce fighting went on for a year in the Balkan 
passes and the mountains south of the Black Sea. The de- 
cisive events were the surrender of Kars, in Armenia, with 
Nov. 18, 1877. 300 cannons and 10,000 prisoners, and of 
Dec. 10. Plevna, in the Balkan region, with 30,000 men. 

The Trojan and Shipka Passes were immediately seized by 
the Russians, and both parties were now ready to treat for 
peace. By the treaty of San Stefano, May 3, 1878, Russia 
was confirmed in the possession of her recent conquests in 
Asia, including the port of Batoum on the Black Sea. 
England protested against this easy settlement of affairs, and 
by a special agreement with the Sultan, June 4, engaged to 
protect Asiatic Turkey against future invasion, on the con- 
dition of pledges of reform in tlie government of that 
region, and the assignment to her of the island of Cyprus. 

This protectorate would of itself prove the decay of the 
Ottoman power, but additional evidence is found in the 
rapid decline of population, which has turned large tracts of 
once fruitful land into wildernesses. 



THE RUSSO- TURKISH WAR. 413 



761. On the 13th of June, 1878, a Congress of European 
Powers* assembled at Berlin, under the presidency of 
Prince Bismarck, and devoted a month to the discussion of 
questions growing out of the recent war. Bulgaria was se- 
cured in a Christian government of her own, her reigning 
prince being chosen by' the people, but confirmed by the 
Sultan with the consent of all the "Powers." Eastern 
Roumelia was made equally free as to internal affairs, but 
had her prince appointed by the Sultan. Bosnia and Her- 
zegovina were added to Austria. Roumania, Servia and 
Montenegro became wholly independent. 

762. A "Supplementary Conference" was held at Berlin 
in June, 1880, to insist upon the needed reforms in Turkey, 
and to settle the boundaries of Greece and Montenegro. A 
league of Allianian mountaineers were resisting the transfer 
of territory to the latter which the Turks were ready to 
make ; but upon the appearance of combined fleets of six 
Great Powers in the Mediterranean, and their proposal to 
seize the wealthy port of Smyrna as security for the execu- 
tion of the treaty, the Sultan found strength to fulfill his 
promises, and late in November Dulcigno and its dependent 
territories were surrendered to Montenegro. 

763. Russia, meanwhile, though victorious abroad, was 
threatened by enemies at home. Alexander II., by eman- 
cipating twenty-two millions of serfs in 1861, and by other 
liberal measures, had studied the best interests of his people; 
but the change from despotism to constitutional government 
could not be made in a day ; and the Nihilists, a party op- 
posed to all restraints of law or religion, were secretly ac- 
quiring great influence. They made repeated attempts upon 
the life of the Czar and some of his chief officers, the bold- 
est of which was the undermining of the Winter Palace at 



•■"These were Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, 
Italy, Russia and Turkey. 



414 MODERX HISTORY. 

St. Petersburg, in February, 1880, with dynamite and gun 
cotton. The Czar escaped, but ten soldiers were killed. 
Count Melikoff was then placed at the head of a Supreme 
Executive Commission, with absolute power to maintain 
order throughout the empire. In spite of his rigorous 
measures to discover and defeat the plots of the Nihilists, 
the Czar was fatally wounded by the explosion of a bomb, 
March 13, 1881, and died in a i^iw hours. His son, Alex- 
ander III , became '"Emperor of all the Russias." A sim- 
ilar spirit in Germany led to two attacks upon the venerable 
Emperor William, but though once wounded he recovered, 
and his assassins were caj.)tured. 

764. The jealousies of England and Russia as to their 
possessions and influence in Asia caused an invasion of 
Afghanistan by a force from British India in November, 
1878. The Governor-General, in his proclamation, charged 
the Ameer, Shere Ali, with favoring a Russian Embassy 
while refusing to receive one from Great Britain. He dis- 
claimed any intention of concjuest, and promised to respect 
the independence of the Afghans, but declared that England 
would never permit any other power than herself to inter- 
fere in their aftairs. The frontier fortresses were seized by 
a British force, and the Kuram district was annexed to 
British India. Shere Ali fled into Turkestan, and a new 
Ameer was proclaimed under the influence of the invaders; 
but two days later they were se\erely defeated in a three 
hours' fight before Candahar. The British garrison of that 
place was relieved by General Sir Frederic Roberts, who 
after a long march defeated the Afghan army before the 
place, August 31, 1880; but the war resulted in enormous 
expense and little credit to its authors. It was, in fact, 
one of the most unpopular measures of the government 
of Lord Beaconsfield,'' who was succeeded, in April, 1880, 
by Mr. Gladstone/ long the head of the Liberal party in 
England. 



TROUBLES IN IRELAND. 



415 



765. In Ireland scanty harvests in- 1877 and 1878, and a 
total failure in 1879, occasioned famine and misery, and led 
to an open revolt against the land laws. A Land League 
was formed in October, 1879, ha\ing for its object an im- 
mediate reduction of rents and an ultimate division of the 
land among those who cultivate it. The present English 
Premier, Mr. Gladstone, has always favored peasant pro- 
prietorship so far as it can be secured in a just and orderly 
manner, but the unlawful proceedings of the "Land 
Leaguers " have called for repressive measures. Mr. Par- 
nell, president of the League and member of Parliament, 
was expelled from the House of Commons. January 24, 
1 88 1, and was subsequently imprisoned in Ireland. Twenty- 
nine other Irish members, known as '' Home Rulers,'' were 
suspended for obstructing the business of the House. 

The starvation in the western counties of Ireland called 
forth the generous sympathy of friends in America. Half a 
million of dollars were promptly sent from New York, and 
the U. S. frigate Constitution was dispatched with a liberal 
supply of food. The Mayor of Dublin and the Duchess 
of Marlborough, wife of the Lord-Lieutenant, also raised 
a relief fund from English charily ; and the government, by 
bringing in a new Land Bill, strove to apply a remedy at 
the root of the distress. The rapid progress of French 
power in Tunis^ and the armed intervention of Great Brit- 
ain in Egyptian affairs, ' "^ are among the notable events of 
1881 and 1882. 

Trace on Map 13, the campaign of Napoleon III. in Italy. Point 
out Sadowa (in Bohemia), Sedan, Melz, Strasburg. Schleswig, Hol- 
.stein, Alsace, Lorraine. Point out Salonica, Constantinople, Bosnia, 
Servia, Roumania, Roumelia ; the Balkan Mountains, Cyprus. 

Read Kinglake's "Invasion of the Crimea;" Lamartine's "His- 
tory of the Revolution of 1848 : " Blanchard Jerrold's " Life of Na- 
poleon III.;" E. Dicey's " Victor Emmanuel ;" Count Arrivabene's 
"Italy under Victor Emmanuel;" Hozier's " History of the Seven 
Weeks' War;" Riistow's "The War for the Rhine Frontier;" Broad- 
ley's "The Fourth Punic War, or Tunis Past and Present." 



4i6 



MODERN HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. Victor Emmanuel II. of Sardinia, but I. of all Italy, was born in 
1820, at Turin. His family— tliat of the Dukes of 8avoy — was one of the 
oldest reigning houses in Europe; but his kingdom was now in a de- 
pressed condition, owing to the pre<lominant power of Austria. After 
a (Mnshiiig defeat at Novara, in Alarch, 1849, Charles Albert, the father 
of Victor Emmanuel, abdicated his crown in favor of his son, and soon 
afterward died. The younger king was fortunate in securing. the serv- 
ices of Count Cavour, one of the greatest of Italian statesinen, who 
became his prime minister in 1851'. His wise and liberal policy rallied 
about the House of Savoy the growing enthusiasm for Italian nationality, 
which was intensified by the unendurable despotism of the Bourbons 
and the Hapsburgs (^§718,719). In 1801, Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed 
king of Italy; in 1866, the whole province of Venelia was surrendered 
by Austria, and in September, 1870, Rome was occupied by the royal 
troops. The seat of government, which had been removed, in 1865, from 
Turin to Florence, was now fixed at the ancient capital of Italy. See § 756. 

2. Marshal McMahon was of Irish de.scent, his family having been 
settled in France since the days of Louis XIV. and James II. (g5.53). 
After 20 years' service in Algeria, he commanded a division of the 
French forces in the Crimean War, and distinguished himself in the 
siege of Sebastopol. See g§ 750, 757.- 

3. Maximilian, born 1832, had held the rank of admiral and com- 
mander-in-chief in the Austrian navy before he was called to the Mex- 
ican 'throne. He married, in 1858, the Princess Carlotta, daughter of 
King Ijoopold 1. of Belgium, and, in domestic life, was remarkable for 
his amiable character. He was deceived as to the popular feeling in 
Mexico; and, after his cause was hopeless, refused to leave the country 
with the French troops, from unwillingness to desert those who had 
imperiled their lives for his sake. His unhappy wife lost her reason, 
from the shock of his untimely fate. 

4. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schonhausen was born at 
Brandenburg in 1815; studied law at (TOttingen and Berlin, and became 
a member of the Diet in 1847. After tilling several important diplomatic 
stations, he became Prussian prime-minister in 1862. His policy, always 
steadily pursued, was the iticrease of Prussian power over the German 
states, "to the exclusion of Austria. This came to complete success in 
1866, as a result of tlie Seven Weeks' War, and in the subsequent estab- 
lishment of the (ierman empire with the king of Prussia at its head. 
In July, 1867, Bismarck was made Chancellor of the North German 
Confederation, and he has held the same office in the empire. 

5. Louis Adolphe Thiers was born at Marseilles in 1797, when the 
Directory was still ruling France, and the stirring scenes in which his 
youth was passed intensified not only his love of his native land, but 
his elTorts to comprehend her best interests. In 1821, he became sub- 
editor of a liberal journal iu Paris, and, two years later, published the 
first volume of his "" History of the French Revolution." In 1830, he used 
all his influence to place Louis Philippe upon the throne, and became 
the new king's first Councilor of State. He desired a monarchy like 
that of England, in which the ministry should be responsible to the 
[leople for all public acts; and originated the popular maxim, "The 
king reigns, he does not govern." In 1840, as the king would not assent 
to his policy towards Mehemet All (see note 10), Thiers resigned his 
post, and was succeeded by Guizot. 

He voted for Louis Napoleon as President, but censured his subse- 
(iuent acts, and firmly opposed the war with Prussia in 1870. When the 
emiiire had fallen, he threw all his energy into the service of the Re- 
l)ublic, and, though now an old man, visited several European courts 
to present the claims of France to moral support and sympathy. He 
died in 1877, four years after his retirement from the presidency. 

Besides his "History of the Revolution," in 10 volumes, M. Thiers 
has left a "History of the Consulate and the Empire," in 20 volumes; 
both works of standard authority. 



NOTES. 417 

6. Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, who, in 1846, became Pope Pius 
the Ninth, was born in 1792, of a noble Italian family, near Ancona. 
In 1823 he visited South America on a religious mission, and is said, 
then and afterwards, to have spent almost his entire personal income 
in works of charity, contenting himself with the most frugal allowance. 

His chosen policy was liberal; he reduced the expenses of the papal 
court, granted amnesty to political offenders, and introduced many 
needed reforms. But the excited revolutionists of 1848 demanded greater 
and greater concessions, and, after his return from Gaeta (§ 733), the 
Pope assumed a re-actionary policy. As early as 1860, Rome was de- 
clared to be the capital of united Italy; but the papal interests were 
maintained by a garrison of J'rench soldiers. They were withdrawn 
by Louis Napoleon in 1866, and "Italy, for the first time in a thousand 
years, was free from the presence of foreign troops." The pontificate 
of Pius IX. is the longest on record, having lasted from 1846 to 1878. 

7. Benjamin Disraeli, later the Earl of Beaconsfield, was a Jew by 
birth, though he early became a member of the Church of England. 
He was first distinguished as a novelist, but in 1837 he entered Parlia- 
ment, where his first speech was a decided failure. Amid the storms 
of derisive laughter, he exclaimed, " I shall sit down now, but the time 
will come when you will hear me." In truth, his career almost from 
that moment was marked by unexampled success. He gained reputa- 
tion by his brilliant speeches against free trade, and raised himself to 
the position of leader of tlie Tory or Conservative party. Though he 
opposed all liberal movements toward Reform, he proposed and carried 
in 1867 a more radical Reform bill than any Liberal statesman had ad- 
vocated. It extended the right of suflFrage to every householder in a 
borough, and to every freeholder to the amount of 40 shillings. Disraeli 
favored the alliance with the Turks, and, in many respects, his Eastern 

Eolicy was contrary to the best sentiment in England. It was during 
is ministry that the queen assumed the title of Empress of India. He 
died April 19, 1881. 

8. William Ewart Gladstone was born in Liverpool, 1809; gradu- 
ated with the highest distinction from Oxford, 1831, and the next year 
became a Conservative member of Parliament. For some months, in 
1834 and 1835, he was a Lord of the Treasury. In 1841, under the minis- 
try of Sir Robert Peel, he became vice-president of the Board of Trade, 
and subsequently president. He has always been noted for liis skill in 
finance, and his aversion to war, having strenuously opposed the in- 
vasion of the Crimea, the Chinese War of 1857, and the interventions 
in Afghanistan and Eastern Europe. 

9 Tunis is a Berber or Moorish town, close by the site of ancient 
Carthage, and possibly older than Carthage itself. For twelve centuries 
it has been a Moslem city. After its capture by Charles V., in 1535 (see 
§465), it remained nearly 40 years under a Spanish protectorate; but, in 
1574, the Turkish power was restored. The province or " regency " of 
Tunis extends from the Mediterranean 440 miles southward to the Great 
Desert, and is 160 miles wide, froin Algeria on the west, to Tripoli and 
the sea on the east. 

Since the establishment of French power in Algeria, there has been 
much jealousy in Italy concerning her commercial and agricultural in- 
terests in Tunis, and the remark has been heard in the Italian parlia- 
ment that, " Carthage may be permitted to rise again, but not to the 
injury of Rome." 

Early in 1881, the murder of some French citizens by Khamirs, or 
Kroumirs, on the border of Algeria and Tunis, led to the advance of 
French forces into the latter territory; and a naval armament appeared 
before Bizerta, which was taken May 1. In two weeks the army was 
before the gates of the capital and had imposed upon the Bey, Muha- 
med es Sadek, a treaty which made him virtually a vassal of the French 
Republic. Kairwan, the Holy City of the Moors, was taken Oct. 26, 1881. 
Until lately it had been sacredly guarded from even the sight of Euro- 
peans, and for a stranger to enter one of its mosques would have been 
instant death. It was from Kairwan that Tarik set out, in A. D. 711, 
for the conquest of Spain. See p. 183. 
Hist.— 27. 



4i8 



MODERN HISTORY. 



10. The present century has witnessed a new era of Egyptian history 
under the dynasty of Meliemet Ali. Tliis noted cliief was born in Roii- 
melia in 1769. In 1799, at the head of the Turkish force, he tools part 
with the British in Egypt, against the French. After foreign troops 
were withdrawn, he was appointed by the sultan first Pasha of Cairo, 
and afterwards governor of Upper Egypt. Here he set himself against 
the MamelukeSj who formed the military aristocracy of the country; 
and finally . invited all their chief officers to a banquet in the citadel 
at Cairo, where he caused them to be shot down without mercy. Me- 
liemet would have made himself the independent sovereign of Egypt, 
but for English intervention. As it was, his dependence was only 
marked by an enormous annual tribute, the oppressed people being 
compelled to support two governments instead of one. 

Having served the sultan well by quelling a revolt in Syria, he re- 
ceived that country as his dominion, still under vassalage to Turkey, 
in 1833; but, in 1841, the sultan, becoming jealous of his powerful vassal, 
took away Syria, making the pachalic of Egypt hereditary in the fam- 
ily of Mehemet, by way of partial compensation. France and England 
concurred in the treaty by which this was arranged. Mehemet died in 
1849. 

Tlie modernizing of Egypt proceeded much more rapidly under his 
grand-nephew, Ismail, who became viceroy in 1863, and four years later 
received the higher title, ICIiediv-el- Mtsr, or King of Egypt, though bur- 
dened with a still heavier tribute to the sultan, than his predecessors 
had borne. The cost of his government to his people is said to have 
hardly a parallel in even Oriental expenditures. His outlay was chiefly, 
though by no means exclusively, for public improvements. " He built 
railroads, launched steamers, established telegraph lines, tore down vil- 
lages and constructed new model villages in their place, erected palaces; 
lighted the cities with gas and supplied them with water; created the 
modern harbors at Alexandria and Suez, by what are among the nota- 
ble engineering achievements of the century; constructed canals for 
irrigation, and made large exixiidilures for the Suez Canal, from which 
almost every modern state reaps greater l)enefit than Egypt. The army 
was re-organized; a new and measurably efficient school-system was put 
HI operation, and a post-office communication established. In a word, 
Ismail undertook in a lifetime to bring Egypt out of the barbarism of 
the past into the civilization of the present, to enable her to traverse in 
thirty years the ground which other nations had occupied centuries in 
traveling." 

All this burdeneil the country with an enormous debt, held chiefly 
by French and English capitalists. INIoreover, "modern civilization re- 
(piired moderns to carry it on," and all the lucrative places in the 
country were soon held by foieisiii officials. In 1875 the khedive barely 
escaped bankruptcy by selliiii; his shares in tlie Suez Canal to the En- 
glish goveriuneiit. A joint Commission was soon afterward sent by the 
governments of England and France to restore order to I^lgyptian finan- 
ces. Their plan was to entrust the whole collection and dislnirsoiiiciit 
of the revenues of Egypt to two Controllers-General, French and En- 
glish, appointed by the khedive; a second foreign commission was to 
collect interest on the bonds, and a third to administer the railways. 
The growing resfiitinent of the people under this foreign interference, 
has been led and fostered by two men — Mohammeil Aclnnet, the False 
Prophet of the Soudan, and Arabi Pacha, lati' cliicf of-staff to the klie- 
dive, but since February, 1881, in open revolt against him. In June, 
1882, hundreds of Christians were massacred by a Mohammedan mob 
in the streets of Alexandria. The English fleet now interfered and bom- 
barded the city, but failed to land a sufficient force to protect lite and 
property. The European quarter Avas set on fire and destroyed by the 
retreating forces of Arabi, while a swarm of Bedouins joined with the 
lowest and worst of the people of the town to plunder the deserted 
houses and murder all Christians who were left. Mohammed Achmet, 
meanwhile, having conquered all EgyiMian Soudan, began to descend 
the Nile to the aid of his ally. The combination was prevented by the 
prompt movements of Sir Garnet VVolseley, the English commander, 
who, advancing westward from the canal, gained a decisive victory at 
Tel-el-Kebii', September 13th. Arabi surrendered himself to the En- 
glish, but was handed over by them to the Egyptian authorities, who 
sentenced him to exile for life. 



J 



CHAPTER XVI. 



AMERICAN AFFAIRS. 




w^Wj^ , „„ 

Crossing the Plains 

iT the close of the Revohition (§§211-213), the 
United States were poor even to ruin, and hardly knew 
what to do with the freedom they had gained. Each state 
stood jealously for its own independence of all the rest; 
and the people who had fought against British taxation, 
were not always willing to pay heavier taxes at the demand 
of Congress. After four years of danger, the National 
Convention, at Philadelphia, prepared a federal constitu- 
tion which left each state sovereign in its own affairs, but 
intrusted the matters in which all were equally interested — 
postal service, coinage, and dealings with foreign nations ^ — 
to a general government. 

767. This constitution was agreed to by the several 
states, and, in 1789, George WashingtonMvas unanimously 
chosen to be the first president of the Union. His noble 
and steadfast character did much to establish order, con- 
fidence, and peace. After eight years' service in this 
highest office, Washington declined to be reelected, and 
was succeeded by John Adams,^ one of the signers of 

(419J 



420 MODERN HISTORY. 

the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson,^ the 
brilliant author of that document, was the next president. 
Under his administration, the whole Mississippi Valley was 
purchased from France. 

768. The claim of the British to search American vessels 
for their runaway sailors, forced the United States into a 
war with the mother-country in 181 2. Beginning, almost 
without a navy, to contend with the greatest maritime 
power on the globe, the president gave commissions to a 
swarm of privateers, which preyed upon British commerce, 
and captured, in the course of the war, more than 1,500 
vessels. Fleets were, however, built both on the ocean 
and the lakes, which gained many victories in regular 
battle. 

769. Three invasions of Canada resulted in loss and 
failure to the Americans, and the whole territory of Michi- 
gan was at one time surrendered to the British ; but the 
brilliant victory of Commodore Perry, '' in Lake Erie, was 
followed by General Harrison's^ triumphant campaign in 
Canada, and the recovery of the lost ground. The Indians 
of the northwest, who were allies of the British, were sub- 
dued by the death of their chief, Tecumseh, and their 
confederacy was broken up. 

770. The next year, the Americans gained decisive vic- 
tories at Chippewa, at Lundy's Lane near Niagara Falls, 
and at Plattsburgh, where an army of Wellington's veterans 
was defeated on land at the same time that Commodore 
McDonough was capturing the British fleet on the w-aters 
of Lake Champlain. The coasts of Virginia and Carolina 
were ravaged by a British force, which, landing in the 
Chesapeake, burned Washington with all its public build- 
ings; but a great victory of General Jackson,'' on the lower 
Mississippi, defeated a similar attempt upon New Orleans. 
News soon afterward arrived that peace had been con- 
cluded at Ghent. 



REVOLT OF THE SPANISH COLONIES. 421 

771. Our -victorious navy won fresh laurels by Commodore 
Decatur's expedition against the pirates of the Barbary 
coast. They were compelled to liberate a multitude of 
American captives, to pay for property which they had 
destroyed, and to enter into a treaty which bound them 
to respect the flag of the United States in future. 

772. The history of these States, from the treaty of 
Ghent to the Mexican War, is hinted at in the philosopher's 
saying: "Happy is the people that has no annals." Every 
year more of the western prairies were converted into 
harvest-fields; and every year thousands of the European 
poor found homes in the New World, where their industry 
brought to light more of the untold wealth of the soil and 
the mines. Navigation by steam, first successfully accom- 
plished by Fulton, on the Hudson River, did much to 
bring the interior of the continent into communication 
with the coast and with Europe. 

773. Taking courage from the success of the United 
States, the Spanish colonies in North and South America 
resolved to be free from the oppressive rule of Ferdinand 
VH. (§718). The moment was favorable when Spain 
was absorbed in the wars with Napoleon; and, in 1810, 
Mexico in the north. Chili and the great viceroyalty of 
Buenos Ayres on the south, declared themselves inde- 
pendent. The latter was divided into the republics of La 
Plata, Uruguay, Paraguay, and, ultimately, Bolivia. The 
five colonies of Central America, and the countries on the 
Caribbean sea were not long in following the example. 

774. The great hero of the revolution was Simon Bolivar, 
a native of Caraccas. While a youth, studying in Europe, 
he learned all that was best in the principles of the French 
Revolution; and fired still more by the example of Wash- 
ington and Franklin, he vowed that he would become the 
liberator of his country. The three provinces of Quito, 
New Granada, and Venezuela united themselves in the 



42 2 MODERN HISTORY. 

Republic of Colombia, with Bolivar as their president, in 
1819; and the Spanish Royalists were finally defeated at 
Carabobo, in 1821. 

775. Peru was the last of the South American countries 
to throw off the Spanish yoke ; and Bolivar, with a Co- 
lombian army, marched to its assistance in 1822. The 
Spaniards were expelled, and Great Britain and the United 
States acknowledged the independence of Peru. Its more 
mountainous southern portion, formerly governed by the 
viceroy of Buenos Ayres, was formed into a separate re- 
public, named Bolivia, in honor of the "Liberator," who 
became its president. 

776. Bolivar desired to unite all South America in a 
great Federal Republic, like the United States of the 
northern part of the continent ; but mutual jealousies 
made this impossible. His last years were embittered by 
the ingratitude of his countrymen, to whose service he 
had devoted his whole life and fortune. 

777. Mexico, after twelve years of revolution, accepted 
Iturbide, a military officer, as its emperor in 1822. But 
Iturbide had reigned less than a year when he found that 
both army and people were hopelessly disaffected toward 
his government. He consented to be exiled with an ample 
pension ; but returning the next year he was shot as a 
traitor. A federal republic was then established. 

778. The great territory of Texas was included in 
Mexico ; but, upon the overthrow of the federal constitu- 
tion by Santa Anna, in 1833, Texas seceded, and sought 
admission into the United States. This was refused for 
several years; but, in 1844, President Polk was elected by 
a party favoring annexation, and Texas was duly admitted, 
the next year, by act of Congress. 

779. War with Mexico followed. General Taylor,' with 
a small United States army, invaded the northern prov- 
inces, which he conquered by his remarkable victories at 



THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 423 



Monterey and Buena Vista. General Scott^ landed at Vera 
Cruz, and capturing, by hard fighting, many cities and 
castles, became master of the capital, which he entered 
September i6th, 1847. Meanwhile General Kearney had 
conquered New Mexico, and, with Fremont and Stockton, 
completed the conquest of California. These territories 
were ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Guada- 
lupe Hidalgo, which fixed the southern boundary of Texas 
at the Rio Grande. 

780. Rich deposits of gold had already been discovered 
in California, and a tide of adventurers, from all parts of 
the world, immediately set toward the diggings. San 
Francisco, from an obscure Spanish "mission," soon be- 
came a thriving city, destined, doubtless, to become one 
of the greatest in the world. Its importance has been 
immensely increased by the completion of a railway across 
the continent, in 1869, and by the opening of a line of 
steamships to Japan and China. 

781. In spite of some discords and dangers, the bond 
of Union, established in 1787 (§766), had been strong 
enough, so far, to keep the several states at peace with 
each other. But the great increase of territory, by the 
Mexican War, gave new force to the elements of discord 
between the north and the south. The former favored 
a strong central government, the latter the sovereignty 
of the several states. A subject of bitter controversy was 
negro slavery, which the north desired to exclude from 
the new states and territories. 

782. Soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln, in 
i860, eleven southern states seceded from the Union, and 
chose Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, to be their president. 
War was begun in April, 1861, by an attack of the Con- 
federate forces upon Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor. 
The south had at first the advantage of better trained 
officers; and the north sustained a severe defeat at Bull 



424 MODERN HISTORY. 

Run, July 21. The Federal Congress immediately voted 
half a million of men, and 500 millions of dollars, for a 
more vigorous prosecution of the war. 

783. A large part of the Atlantic coast was regained, 
by the Union forces, in the autumn of 1861; and, during 
the next two years, several great victories reopened the 
Mississippi to federal commerce. 

So long as the southern states remained in the Union, 
their holding of slaves had not been interfered with by 
the general government. They were now beyond its pro- 
tection; and the president's proclamation of January ist, 
1863, declared all negroes free, and invited them to enlist 
in the Federal fleets or armies. 

784. The southern armies, under General Lee, made 
their farthest advance to the northward in an invasion of 
Pennsylvania, June, 1863; but they were defeated, at 
Gettysburg, during the first three days of July. This was 
the turning-point of the war, though much hard fighting 
was yet to be done on both sides. The next spring a 
general forward movement was made by the Union forces, 
from the Potomac to the James River, and from the Ten- 
nessee southeast to the Atlantic. Richmond and Peters- 
burg, in Virginia, were besieged by the armies of Grant; 
Atlanta, Savannah, Charleston, and Columbia were taken 
by those of Sherman. 

785. In the autumn of 1864, President Lincoln was 
reelected, and the south, now nearly exhausted, put forth 
her last resources. After three days' hard fighting, in 
Virginia, the Confederate government aban- 

. . 1^1 April, 1865. 

doned Richmond, its capital, and Generals 
Lee and Johnston soon afterward surrendered their entire 
commands. The war being thus ended, the whole country 
observed the fourth anniversary of its beginning as a day 
of thanksgiving. Its joy was suddenly turned into grief 
and horror by news of the murder of the president. But 



ALASA^A PURCHASED. 425 

this crime did not break the peace which had been so 
happily restored. Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President, 
quietly succeeded to the highest office. The late Confed- 
erate States repealed their ordinances of secession, and 
consented to amendments of the Constitution, which put 
an end to slavery. 

786. The United States emerged from the civil war 
with a debt of nearly $3,000,000,000. A million of lives 
had either been ended in battle or enfeebled by wounds 
and disease; industries were paralyzed, while an immense 
issue of paper money had tempted the people to unprece- 
dented extravagance. Wild speculations were followed by 
great failures and consequent "hard times" for thousands 
who were thrown out of employment. The government, 
however, set itself to the work of redeeming its credit ; 
immense harvests of grain brought renewed prosperity ; and 
on the first day of 1879 payments in gold were resumed by 
the Treasury and the national banks. 

787. Much injury had been done to American commerce 
during the Civil War by Confederate cruisers built in En- 
gland and sailing under the British flag. It was feared that 
the claims thence arising might lead to war ; but the two 
nations wisely agreed to refer the whole matter to peaceful 
arbitration. A Board of Commissioners from Italy, Switzer- 
land, Brazil, Great Britain and the United States, met at 
Geneva in the summer of 1872, and the sum of money 
which they awarded for damages under the "Alabama 
claims " was promptly paid by Great Britain. The same 
year a question of boundary lines between Washington Ter- 

■ ritory and British Columbia was referred to the Emperor of 
Germany, and his decision was accepted by both nations. 

788. In 1867, all the Russian possessions in America 
were purchased by the United States. Difficulties have 
occurred with the Indians of the western plains, who were 
either dissatisfied with the lands reserved to them or justly 



42 6 MODERN HISTORY. 

indignant at the frauds of agents and traders appointed by 
the government. The treacherous Modocs were subdued in 
1873, ^^"'d their chiefs were executed. A more serious war 
with the Sioux in Montana and Wyoming marked the sum- 
mer of 1876. General Custer, with a regiment of cavah-y, 
was surprised by a larger Indian force, and every white man 
was slain. The war was then prosecuted until the chiefs, 
many times defeated, escaped with a small following into 
Canada. 

789. The one-hundredth anniversary of American inde- 
pendence was celebrated, in the summer of 1876, by a 
grand exposition, at Philadelphia, of the whole world's 
industries and arts. Dom Pedro 11.,^ the enlightened and 
energetic emperor of Brazil, was present and took a hearty 
interest in the opening ceremonies. He afterwards traveled 
through the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
Ocean, studying whatever might be of use to his great em- 
pire, whose natural wealth has only begun to be brought to 
light. His eldest daughter was regent of Brazil in his 
absence. 

790. General U. S. Grant, who had held the highest mil- 
itary command during the latter part of the Civil War, was 
elected to the presidency in 1868, and reelected in 1872. 
He was succeeded by R. B. Hayes, of Ohio, in a term of 
great prosperity. In the autumn of 1880, James A. Gar- 
field, also of Ohio, was chosen to be the twentieth presi- 
dent. Great benefits were anticipated from his long expe- 
rience in public affairs and his pacific character; but his 
administration was cut short by the crime of an assassin, 
and he died September 19, 1881. The Vice-President, 
Chester A. Arthur, of New York, succeeded to the vacant 
place. 

791. The British colonies in America received a new con- 
stitution in. 1867. The Dominion of Canada now consists 
of seven provinces, under the rule of a Governor-General 



RECENT EVENTS. 427 

appointed by the Crown. Each province has its separate 
[jarliamt-nt and deputy governor, and is independent in 
local aflairs, like each of the United States. In 1878 the 
Queen's son-in-law, the Marquis of Lome, ^ "' became Gov- 
ernor-General. By an Order in Council in 1880, the Queen 
ordained that all the territories of British America, except- 
ing the Island of Newfoundland, should be included in the 
Dominion of Canada. 

792. Several recent changes have occurred in other parts 
of the American continent. The war of several years be- 
tween Chili, Bolivia, and Peru resulted, in 1881, in the 
capture of the Peruvian capital, the destruction of the fleet, 
and the overthrow of the government. A provisional gov- 
ernment, under the control of Chili, was proposed. A 
special envoy was sent by the government of the United 
States to each and all the contending powers in the hope 
of restoring peace by friendly mediation, and preventing 
consequences which, as President Arthur said in his mes- 
sage to Congress, December 6, 1881, might be "dangerous 
to the interests of republican government on this continent, 
and calculated to destroy the best elements of our free and 
peaceful civilization." 

The long war of revolution in Cuba ended in the surren- 
der of the last insurgent force to the army of King Alfonso, 
June 27, 1880. 

Read Irving's "Life of Washington;" "Washington's Corre- 
spondence Concerning Western Lands;" the "Life and Works of 
John Adams," edited by his grandson; Hildreth's "History of the 
United States ; " Randall's or Parton's " Life of Jefferson ; " Parton's 
"Life of Jackson;" Dawson's or Burr's "Life of Harrison;" "Na- 
tional Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans ; " J. Fennimore 
Cooper's "History of the American Navy;" R. S. Ripley's "The 
War with Mexico; " " Histories of the Civil War," by the Count of 
Paris, by J. W. Draper, by Pollard, and in Greeley's "American 
Conflict;" Badeau's "Life of Grant," 



428 MODERN HISTORY. 



NOTES. 

1. George "Washington, born February 22, 1732, in Virginia, became 
employed in iTlSas a surveyor upon tlie lands of Lord Fairfax, and en- 
dured much bardsliip ior three years. At 19 he was Adjutant-General 
with the rank of Major, and two years later made a perilous journey 
through the wilderness to tlie French outpost on the Allegheny. As 
Colonel, he served as aide to General Braddock (who lost his life through 
disregarding Washington's advice), and, in 1755, became commander-in- 
chief of the Virginian forces. In 1758 he was elected a member of the 
House of Burgesses of Virginia, in 1778 was delegate to a convention at 
Williamsburg, which asserted the right of the colonies to self-govern- 
ment, and the next year to the General Congress at Philadelphia. In 
1775 he was made commander-in-chief of all the American forces; in 
1787 was President of the Convention which prepared the Constitution 
of the United States; and, from 1789 to 1797, was President of the Fed- 
eral Republic. Returning to the country life which he had always 
preferred to public service, he died at INIt. Vernon, Dec. 14, 1799. 

2. John Adams, second President of the United States, was born in 
Braintree, Mass., in Oct., 173.5; studied law; was a delegate to the First 
and Second Continental Congresses, and was one of the five who drafted 
the Deeliirution f>f Indei)endence. He was commissioner to France, 1778, 
minister to Holland, 17sl, and one of the four commissioners who con- 
cluded the treaty of peace with Great Britain, 1782. He held the difficult 
and delicate post of first minister from the now liljeraU-d states to 
George III. As Vice-president under Washington, and afterwards as 
President, he belonged to the Federal party, which leaned to the En- 
glish alliance, and resisted the efTorts of the French to drag the United 
States into war. Retiring, in 1801, to private life, he lived to see his son 
become President in 1825, and died on the fiftieth anniversary of the 
signing of the Declaration, Jialy 4, 1826. Jefferson died the same day. 

3. Thomas JeflEterson, born 1743, in Virginia, was educated at William 
and Mary Colleiie, where he distinguished himself by hard study and 
especially by ijroticiuucy in languages. Studying law, he gained an 
early and i-einarkable success. In 1773, In concert with Patrick Henry 
and" other patriots, he devised the intercolonial correspondence, which 
drew the best men of the several colonies together in sentiment, and 
was of immense .service in preparing the way for union. His profound 
knowledge of English law and his admirable style as a writer gave 
Jefferson a leading position in Congress. From his pen came the first 
draft of the Declaration of Independence, one of the ablest state-papers 
which the world has ever seen. Among his great services to his native 
state, was a revised code of laws, and a plan for a complete system of 
elementary and collegiate education. He was Governor of Virginia, 
1779-81. In 1785 he succeeded Dr. Franklin as minister to Paris, where 
he spent four of the happiest years of his life, and formed that strong 
attachment to France and the interests of the French people, which led 
him into opposition to Adams and the Federal part.v during the wars 
of the French Revolution (See note 2). As President, 1801-18U9, he intro- 
duced great simplicity into the style of Executive living; sent a written 
message to Congress instead of going in state to deliver a personal ad- 
dress, and was accessil)le to the humblest who desired to speak with 
him. Declining a re-election after two prosperous terms of office, he 
spent his last years in private and social life, and died 1826. 

4. Oliver Hazard Perry was a native of Newport, R. I., and was 
only 28 years of age when he first built his fleet from the forests by 
Lake Erie, then fought and gained a complete victory. 

5. "William Henry Harrison, born in Virginia, 1773, entered the U. S. 
armv 1791; represented the Northwest Territory in Congress, 1799; was 
Gov(?rnor of Indiana Territory, 1801-1813; many times defeated the In- 
dians and their British allies; represented the Cincinnati district in 
Congress, 1817, 1818; and became U. S. Senator from Ohio in 1824. In 
1828 he was U. S. minister to Colombia; but, being recalled in 1829, he 
spent some ten years at his farm near North Bend, Ohio. He became 
President of the United States in March, 1841, but died one month later. 



NOTES. 429 

6. Andrew Jackson was born in Carolina, of Irish parentage. His 
childhood was sixiit in great poverty, with few opportunities for educa- 
tion; but, li;i%ing studied law, he removed, at the age of 21, to Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, and soon obtained a large practice. He was a member 
of the Convention which framed the State Constitution for Tennessee 
in 179(), and was the sole representative of that state in Congress, un- 
til, the next year, he became its Senator. From 179S to 1S(I4, he was 
Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Volunteering for tlie War 
of 1812, Jackson rendered brilliant service against the Cieck Indians, and 
afterwards against the British in the decisive Battle of New Orleans. 
After a successful war against the Seminoles, he was made Governor 
of Florida in 1821; was U. S. Senator from Tennessee in 1823, and was 
elected President of the United States in 1828. Always strong in his 
personal and party animosities, he began his administration by sweep- 
ing all his political opponents from public offices, lemoving ten times 
as many officials in one year, as all the preceding Presidents had done 
in 40. He acted with energy and decision against movements for dis- 
union of the states during his first term of office. The 8 years of his 
administration were a period of unexampled prosperity, but his finan- 
cial measures led to a disastrous crisis under his successor. Retiring 
from public life in 1837, Jackson died near Nashville, in 1845. 

7. Gen. Zachary Taylor was born in Orange Co., Virginia, 1784, but 
during his infancy the family removed to Louisville, Kentucky, where 
he was educated. Entering the army in 1808, he served as captain in 
the War of 1812, and for many years afterwards was engaged in Indian 
warfare, completing, in 1842, the work which Gen. Jackson had begun 
against the Seminoles in BTorida. In the Mexican War he was one of 
the most prominent iind successful actors. In 1848 he was elected to be 
President of the United States. The chief events of his short adminis- 
tration were the rapid settlement of California owing to the recent dis- 
covery of gold, and the debates in Congress upon the question of her 
admission to the Union as a free state. During the violent discussion 
President Taylor died, July 9, 1850, after only 16 months of office. 

8. Gen. Winfleld Scott, also a native of Virginia, first distinguished 
himself greatly in the War of 1812, in which he rose to the rank of 
Major-General. At its close he received a gold medal and the thanks 
of Congress for his "uniform gallantry and good conduct in sustaining 
the reputation of the arms of tlie United States." He held the chief 
command in the war with Mexico, and was subsequently the candidate 
of the Whig party for the Presidency, but was defeated by the Demo- 
cratic vote for Pierce. The honorary rank of Lieutenant-General was 
created for hinr in 1855, to cease at his death. At the outbreak of the 
Civil War, Gen. Scott threw the whole weight of his influence on the 
side of the Union, but soon afterward, at the age of 75, retired from ac- 
tive duty, and died at West Point, 1866. 

9. Dom Pedro II. was born at Rio Janeiro, Dec, 1825. When he was 
only six years old, his father, Pedro I., abdicated the Brazilian throne 
in "his favor, and, returning to Portugal, resumed the crown of that 
kingdom, which he had previously bestowed upon his daughter, Maria 
da Gloria. The young emperor was declared of age in 1840, while lacking 
.some months of fifteen j^ears. The development of the yet unexplored 
resources of his empire by the encouragenient of science was among 
his earlie.st cares; he delights in the conversation of scientific men, 
and himself presides at examinations in schools and colleges. In his 
extensive travels he takes nothing at second-hand which the most en- 
ergetic industry will enable liini" to see and investigate for himself; 
prni ting-houses, factories, telegraphs, telephones, and every form of 
applied science engage his attention. He has been compared, certainly 
to his own advantage, with an another imperial Peter (^591) who be- 
came a traveler for the benefit of his realm. 

10. Tlie Marquis of Lome is the eldest son of the Duke of Argyle, 
distinguished as a writer and lecturer on philosophical subjects, not 
less than as holding the highest rank and belonging to one of the old- 
est and most powerful families in Scotland. 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. — BOOK III. 



Section 

1. How was kingly power affected by the introduction 

of gunpowder ? 440 

2. Describe the condition of Italy, and the wars of 

Charles VIII. of France. 441 -443 

3. What were their results ? 444 

4. Describe the wars of Louis XII. in Italy. 445-447 

5. The character of Leo X. Of Ferdinand of Spain. 448 

6. The character and reign of Francis I. 

449-452, 465, 468, 474 

7. What led to the Reformation ? 453, 455 

8. Tell the story of Luther. 454, 456, 457 

9. Why were the reformers called Protestants? 458 

10. What nations embraced their doctrines ? 459 

11. Describe Turkish progress under Solyman. 460, 462-467 

12. Tell the story of Pope Clement VII. 461, 492 

13. What relation was Charles V. to Charles the Bold of 

Burgundy ? 413, 424, 444 

14. Describe his reign and retirement. 450-471 

15. Loyola and the Jesuits. 472 

16. The reign of Louis XII. in France. 473 

17. Henry II., and the Guises. 475-478 

18. Catherine de' Medici, her sons, the religious wars. 478-485 

19. What was done in England during the reign of 

Henry VII.? 486, 487 

20. Describe the reign and character of Henry ^TII. 488-497 

21. Tell the story of Wolsey. 490-493 

22. Of Edward VI., Somerset, and Northumberland. 497-500 
23- Of Jane Grey and Mary Tudor. 499-502 

24. Of Elizabeth. 503 -51 1 

25. Describe the Netherlands under Charles V. 512, 513 

26. The policy and the agents of Phili]) IT. 514-524 

27. The character and measures of William the Silent. 514- 521 
(430J 



QUESTIONS.— BOOK in. 431 

28. What became of the seven northern, and the ten 

southern provinces ? 517, 519, 523 

29. Describe James I. of England, and the Puritans. 526, 527 

30. Tell the story of Sir Walter Raleigh. 507, 528 

31. What colonies were formed in James' reign ? 529 

32. What was his foreign policy ? 530 

33. Describe Charles I. and his dealings with parliament. 531, 532 

34. Tell the stories of Hampden, Strafford, Laud. 533-535 

35. Describe the two parties and the civil war. 536, 537 

36. What became of Charles I. ? 538 

37. What differences between Scotland and England fol- 

lowed his death ? 539 

38. Describe the war with Holland. 540 

39. Tell the story of the Long Parliament. 535, 541 

40. Of Cromwell's Protectorate, and what followed. 542, 543 

41. Describe the restoration and character of Charles H. 544-546 

42. What plots, real or supposed, during his reign? 547, 548 

43. What parties arose ? What do we ovi^e to the Whigs ? 549 

44. Name some great men of the time. 55° 

45. Describe the reign of James H. 551, 552 

46. Tell the history of William of Orange. 553-555 

47. Of the last of the Stuarts. 556, 557 

48. How were the Hapsburg dominions divided upon the 

death of Charles V. ? 559 

49. Describe the wars with the Turks. 5^0—5^3 

50. Maximilian H. and Rudolph H. 562 

51. The beginning of the Thirty Years' War. 564 

52. Wallenstein's character and career. 5^5-570 

53. Gustavus Adolphus. 567-569 

54. Describe the remaining years of the war. 570, 571 

55. What was accomplished by the Treaty of Westphalia? 572, 573 

56. Describe Portuguese settlements in the east and west. 574-576 

57. The policy of Spain toward her colonies. 577-579 

58. The French settlements in America. 580-582 
-59. The Dutch " " 583 

60. The English " " 584 

61. Tell the history of Sweden to Christina's abdication. 585, 586 

62. Describe the constitution of Poland. 587 

63. Tell the history of Russia from Ivan HL to Peter L 588, 589 

64. The story of Peter the Great. 59° -597 

65. Of Charles XH. of Sweden. 593 - 596 



432 QUESTIONS.— BOOK I IT. 

66. The early history of Prussia. 598, 599 

67. Describe its second king. 600, 601 

68. Tell the story of Frederic the Great. 602, 603, 606, 607 

69. Describe the War of the Austrian Succession. 602-605 

70. Catherine the Great and the Partitions of Poland. 608-610 

71. The first of the Bourbons and his reign in France. 611 -613 

72. The regency of Marie de Medici. 614 

73. Tell the history and policy of Richelieu. 615 -617 

74. Describe the reign of Louis XIV., and the circum- 

stances of its beginning. 618-620 

75. What followed Mazarin's death? 621 

76. Describe Louis' wars in the Spanish Netherlands 

and Holland. 622-624 

77. His persecutions of the Huguenots. 625, 626 

78. His wars on the Rhine. 627 

79. The causes and incidents of the War of the 

Spanish Succession. 628-630 

80. Louis' death, and the writers of his age. 631, 632 

81. What was done during the Regency? 633 

82. In what wars did Louis XV. engage ? 634, 635 

83. What possessions were lost by France? 636 

84. Describe the first 15 years of the reign of Louis XVI. 637-639 

85. The reign of George I. in England. 640-64I 

86. Of George II., and the invasion of the 

young Pretender. 642, 643 

87. What part had England and her colonies in the 

Seven Years' War? 644-646 

88. Describe George III., aud his policy in England and 

America. 647-649 

89. Tell the story of the American Revolution. 650-652 

90. What were the consequences to England of the 

French Revolution ? 653, 654 

91. Describe George IV., and his reign. 655, 656 

92. The reign of William IV. 657, 658 

93. The condition of Victoria's empire during the 

early years of her reign. 659-661 

94. The war in the Crimea. 662-665 

95. The rise of the British-Indian Empire. 666, 667 

96. What was done by Warren Hastings? 668, 669 

97. Describe the wars and dealings with China. 670, 671 

98. The Sepoy Rebellion. 672-674 



QUESTIONS.— BOOK ITT. 433 

99. Tell the history of Australia. 675 

100. What other dominions has England in the East? 676 

loi. What causes led to the French Revolution? 677, 678 

102. What was done by the National Assembly ? 679 

103. What, by the mob ? 680 

104. Describe the Girondists, the Jacobins, and the Reign 

of Terror. 681 -683 

105. What became of the royal family ? 684, 685 

106. What, of the three leaders of the Jacobins? 686-688 

107. Describe the Coalition. What was done at Toulon ? 689 

108. Effects of the Revolution in Paris. In the West. 690 

109. What change was made by the Directory? 691 
no. What was done in Holland, Belgium, and Italy? 692, 693 
HI. Describe Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign. 694 

112. How was the Second Coalition broken up? 695 

113. What successive titles had Napoleon? 695, 697 

114. What changes did he make in Germany? 698, 699 

115. Describe the death of Nelson. 700 

116. What was done by Napoleon in the North ? 701-703 

117. In the south of Europe? 704-705 

118. In Austria in 1809? 706 

119. Describe the causes and incidents of Napoleon's 

war with Russia. 707 - 709 

120. The campaigns of 1813, and 1814. 710-712 

121. The second reign of Napoleon, and its close. 713 

122. What was done by the Congress of Vienna? 714-716 

123. Describe the Holy Alliance, and its dealings with 

Spain, Italy, and Germany. 717-720 

124. Tell the story of the Greek Revolution. 721-723 

125. Describe the Revolutions of 1830. 724, 725 

126. The reign of Louis Philippe. 726-728 

127. The Revolutions of 1848. 729-735 

128. How did Napoleon III. become Emperor of the 

French? 736-738 

129. Describe the War of Italian Nationality. 739-441 

130. The French interference in Mexico. 742 

131. The Seven Weeks' War and its consequences 

in Austria. 743-745 

132. The Spanish Revolution, and candidates for the 

crown. 747 

133. The Franco- Prussian War. 74^-753 
Hist.— 38. 



434 



QUESTIONS.— BOOK III. 



134 
135 
136 

137 
138 
139 

140, 
141 
142 
143 
144. 
145 

146. 



The War of the Commune. 754 755 

What recent changes in Italy, France, and Spain ? 756-758 
What has occurred in Turkey, Russia, and Ireland ? 759-763, 765 

What important treaties signed 1878-1880 ? 762, 763 

Describe the Afghan War. 764 
How did the United States become settled after the 

Revolution ? 766 

Describe the war with England. 768- 770 

The following years. 771, 772 

The Spanish American Revolutions. 773-777 

The annexation of Texas and its consequences. 778, 779 

How has California gained importance ? 780 

Describe the war between the States, its causes and 

results. 781-787 

Mention some recent events. 788-792 



DESCENT, FROM EDWARD III., OF THE THREE ROYAL 
HOUSES OF LANCASTER, YORK, AND TUDOR. 

Edwakd III. 



Edward, Pr. of Lionel, Duke of J. of Gaunt, m. 3 Cath. Swynford. Edmund, D. of 



Wales, d. 1376. 



Richard II. 
* deposed, 1399. 



Clarence. Duke of Lan- 

I caster. 
Philippa ni. \ 

Edm. Mortimer, Hennv IV. 
Earl of March. I 

I 
Rog. Mortimer, | 

Earl of March. 



John Beaufort, 
E. of Somerset. 

John P)eaufort, 
D. of Somerset. 

L 



Henry V. m. 

I Catherine of 

I France, who m, 2 Owen Tudor 

Edm. Mortimer, Anne Mortimer | I 

Earlof March, m. Rich-ard, E. Henry VI. Edm. Tudor, 

d. 1424. of Cambridge. | Earl of | 

Edward, Pr. of Richmond, m Margaret 
Wales, d. 1471. I Beaufort. 



York. 

I 
Richard, E.irl 
of Cambridge, 
beheaded, 1415 

I 
Richard. D. of 
York, died at 
Wakefield, 
1460. 



L, 



Henry VII. 



Edward IV. 



George, D. of 
Clarence. 



Richard III. 



Elizabeth Edward V. 

m. Henry VII. d. 1483. 



Richard, Duke 
of York. 



h 



Edward, E. of Margaret, 
Warwick, Countess of 

beheaded, 1499. Salisbury, 

beheaded, 1541. 



INDEX. 



Find names of sovereigns under names of their respective countries. Where 
the list is continuous, only one date, that of accession, is added to each 
name. Figures refer to pages. 



Abbas'sides, 180, 182, 183, 221. 

Abelard (iib a lar), 247, 2.50. 

A'braham, 25. 

Acha'ia, Province of, 125. 

Achse'an League, 102, 103, 10.5. 

Achae'ans, 58, HI. 

Achilles (a kil'lez), 5.5, 97. 

Acre (ii'lver), 20fj, 208. 

Actium, 137. 

Adams, John, 419, 428. 

Adolphus, 1 )S, 1(1(1, l(i2. 

Adrian VI., Popr, 267, 272. 

Adriatic, 96, 180, 207, 221. 

-^gean (lege'an ) Sea, 21, 36, 58, 61, 72. 

-ffi'gos Pot'ami, 76. 

JEo'lians, .58. 

.ffi'qui. 117. 

^s'chylus, 85-87. 

JEto'lian League, 102. 

Afghanistan (afghan'istan), 414, 417. 

Africa, 8, 18, 19, 33, 42, 47, 48, 179, 183, 

274. 
Africa, Province of, 125, 132, 135, 1.59, 

lt)0, 171. 
Agamem'non, 55. 
Agesila'us, 76-78, 82, 83. 
Agincourt (Ji zhan koor'), 229. 
Agra'rian Laws, 113, 115, 117, 129. 
Aix (Aks) in Provence, 131. 
Aix-la-Chapelle, treaties of, 187, 189, 

34.-), 3.52. 
Al'aric, 160-163. 
Albert the Great, theologian, 247, 

2.50. 
Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg, 367, 

371. 
Albigenses, 234, 2;tt. 
Alcibi'ades, 75, 7(>, 81. 
Alemanni, 159, 169, 173. 
Alexander the Great. See Macedon. 
Alexan'dria, 9.5, 98, 100, 101, 1.37, 162, 

179, 3.S5, 418. 
Algonquins, 330, 334. 
Al'lia River, battle at, 114. 
Alps, 30, 114, 123, 2(J6. 
Alsace (al'sace^, ;>50, 409, 410. 
Alva, Duke of, 299, ;!00 
Ambrose, Arclibishop of Milan, 160, 
America, 8, 2.5.5-2."i9, 276, 277, .303, 311, 

329-;B:35, 353-457, 419-429. 



American Independence, Declara- 
tion of, .•;t;i, 420, 428; War of, 347, a57, 
3(i2-364, 37.;; Anniversary of, 426. 

Amiens (a me iiN'), Treaty of, 38.5, 
3.S6. 

Amphictyon'ic Council, 60. 

Amsterdam, 338, 3.52. 

Anac'reon, .58. 

Anaxag'oras, .88. 

Anjou (ON zhoo') County, 188,207, 232. 

Anjou, Charles, Ct. of, 214, 2:«. 

Anjou, Louis, Duke of, 2.37. 

Anjou, Francis, Dulve of, 301. 

Anjou, Pliilip, Duke of. See Spain, 
Philip V. 

Anne Boleyn (bool'in), 289, 290. 

Anne of Austria, .i.'iO, Sol. 

Anne of Bohemia, 246. 

Anne of Brittany, 254, 268. 

Anne of Cleves, 290, 296, 297. 

Antioch, on the Oron'tes, 99, 104, 204, 
205, 208. 

Antony, :Mark, 101, 136, 137. 

Antwerp, 299, ;W1, 302. 

Ap'ennines, 16, 114. 

Aphrodi'te, -56, 62. 

A'pis, 46. 

Aporio, 5(S-62, 74, 86, 108. 

Aqui'nas, Thos., theologian, 247, 2.50. 

Aquitaine', 184, 199, 207, 2.32, 2.34, 240. 

Arabia, Arabs, 12, 20, 178-18:3. 

Arabi (oo rii'be) Pa.sha', 418. 

A'ral, Sea of, 32. 

Arbe'la, battle of, 37, 38, 95. 

Arca'dians, 65; league of, 78. 

Archangel, 293, *37. 

Architecture, 10, 13, 17, 18, 47, 90, 91. 
141, 174, 196. 

Arctic Ocean, 3.35, 337. 

A'res, God of war, .56, 62. 

Aristi'des, ii9, 72. 

Aristoph'anes, .87. 

Aristotle, 90, 93. 

Ar'yans, 10, 13, 16, 17, 21, 31, 40, .52, .53, 
1.58. 

Asia, 7-.39. .57, 9.5-98, 125, 17.5-203, 209, 
220, 221, 223, 414. 

Asia Minor, 9, 21, .32, 53, .54, 60, -72, 94, 
99, 100, 126, 1.59, 160, 204. 

Asia, Rom. Province of, 1.32, 138. 



(435) 



Ass 



INDEX. 



Bra 



Assyria, Assyrians, 10-15, 18, 27, 144. 
Kiugs of: 

Tiglathi-iiiu (B. C. 1250), 11. 

Tiglath-piieser I. (1120-1100), 11. 

Iva-liisli \X. (810-781), 11, 18. 

Tiglath-piieser II. (74.5-727), 12. 

Sargon (721), 12,14,20. 

Sennacherib (705), 12, 13. 

Esarhaddou ((J81-067), 12, 50. 

Asshur-bani-pal (664-642), 12, 13. 
Astu'rias, 126, 179. 
Atiie'na, 56, 62, 69, 90. 
Athens. Athenians, 35, 36, 41, 63-83, 

86-91, 102, 15.5. 
Atlantic Ocean, 47, 188, 2.55. 
At'tica, 54, 5.5, 70. 
At'tila, Kil, 163. 

Auerstadt (ow'er stitt) battle, 387. 
Augsburg (owgz'-boorg), 273. 
Au'gurs, 109, 113, 116. 
Aurungzebe, 372. 
Australia, 375, 376. 
Austria, Austrians, 218, .337, .'542, 34.3, 

.•;,S5, ;i!Mi, 4(l(i, 407, 412, 413. 
Austria, Dukes of, 207, 219, 320. 
Austria, Maria Theresa, Arch- 

iluches.s of, .342-.345. 
Austria, Hereditary Emperors of: 

Francis I. (1804), ;386, 389. 

Ferdinand (18:i3), 400. 

Francis Joseph I. (1«48), 400,406, 407. 
Austria, House of. See Hapsburgx. 
A'vars, 185. 

Avignon (a ven yoN'), 21.5, 236. 
Azores', 2.58. 



Babel, Bab'ylon, 9-18, 20, 32, 95, 96, 98. 
Babylonian Empire, 14-17, 22, 44. 
Babylonian Eini)ire, Sovereigns of- 

Nabouassar I B. C 747), 14. 

Nabopolassar i625), 14, 15. 

Nebuchadnezzar (604-561), 15, 20, 27, 

28, 32. 

Nabonadius(.5.55), 16. 

Belshazzar (5.{9-538), 16, 32. 
Bac-chan'tes, 57. 
Bacon, Francis, 295. 
Bacon, Roger, 247, 251. 
Baetria, Bactrians, 10, 32, 38, 40, 52, 

!I9, 100. 

Bagdad, 180, 18:^, 221. 

Balakla'va, 368. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, 2.56, 2.59. 

Baltic Sea, 19, 23, 210, 217, 31.5, 337, 339, 

36S. 
Bankers, Italian, 215, 216. 
Barbarians, 7, 8, 21, 30, .34, 35, 114, 131, 

152-151. 15S-1(;3, l(i7. 220, 221. 
Barbarians, so called by Greeks, .59, 

7S. 
Barbaros'sa of Algiers, 274. 
Barnet. battle at, 231. 
Bartholomew, St., massacre on day 

of. 282, 283. 
Basle (bal). Council at, 244. 
Bastile (-teel'), destroyed, 380, 393. 



Batavian Pepublic,formed of United 
Netherlands, .3^4. 

Bavana, Bavarians, 18.5, 188, 34:^. 

Bavaria, Charles Albert, Elector of, 
342 (Charles VII. Emperor). 

Bazaine', (ien., 408, 409. 

Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, 
Earl of, 414, 417. 

Beaujeu (bo zhu), Anne of, 280. 

Becket, Thomas, 22.5, 226, 232, 234. 

Bede, Tlu' Venerable, 247, 249. 

" Beggars," The, 299-;m 

Belgian Republic, formed of Aus- 
trian Netiierlands, 884, .385. 

Belgium, Kingdom of, 396, 898. 

Belgium, King of: Leopold I. (A.D. 
ls:;o-l,sti5i, 398,416. 

Bel'grade, 222. 

Belisa'rius, 174, 176. 

Bengal, 373, 877. 

Berlin, 341, 344, 387. 

Berlin, Congresses at, 413. 

Berlin Meniorandum, 412. 

Bernard' of ( hurvaux (v6'), 206, 212. 

Beth'lehem, 141,207. 

Bible, Hebrew, 28; trans, into Greek, 
101; into Russ., 195; into English, 
172, 807, 318; source of Lombard 
Laws, 171; printed, 254; in Switzer- 
land, 272. 

Bismarck, Prince, 406, 407, 416. 

Bithyn'ia, 21, 1.54. 

Black Death, The, 236. 

Black Sea, (Euxine), 21, 41, 5.5, 76, 138, 
159, 216, 220, 337, .368, 398, 412. 

Blake, Admiral, 311. 

Blenheim (-hime',354. 

Boccaccio (bok katch'o), 248, 252. 

Boemond of Taranto, 204, 212 

Boeo'tia, 74, 77, .S.5. 

Bohemia, Bohemians, 171, 242-244, 
24(1. 273, 321-824, ;343. 

Bolivar, Simon, 421, 422. 

Bolivia, 422, 427. 

Bologna (bo lon'ya), 146, 247, 327. 

Bombay, 373. 

Bonaparte, Jerome, 388, 409. 

Bonaparte, Joseph, 388, 389. 

Bonaparte, Louis, 388, 389. 

Bonaparte. Najioleon, 383-388, 39.3. 
See France, Jiulr)-.'; of. 

Bossuet (bos swa'), 355. 

Boston, Tea destroyed at, 363. 

Bosworth, battle, 231. 

Bothwell, Earl of, 293. 

Boulogne (boo Ion'), 275. 

Bourbon, Duke of, 267, 286. 

Bourbon, House of, 282, 285, 286, 348- 
359, .'WS, :;'.i5,. ■!',»(). 

Bourbon, House of, in Spain, 354, 
;-i.55, 888, 407, 411. 

Bourbon, Family Compact, 342, 3.56, 
3.57. 

Boyle, Rob't, 314, .319. 

Boyne. R., battle at, 316. 

Bozzaris (hot za'res), Marco, 397, 402. 

Braddock, Gen., .362, 428. 

Bragan'zas, 3.34, 388. 



(436) 



Bra 



INDEX. 



Con 



Brazil (bra zil'), 250, 329, 334, 388, 425, 

42(i. 
Brazil', Pedro II., Emperor of, 426, 

429. 
Bretigny (bret-een'ye). Treaty of, 

228. 
Briel (breel), 300. 

Britain, 19, 21, 134, 144, 150, 159, 160. 
Brit'tauy, Anne, Duchess of, 254, 268. 
Bruce, Robert, 226, 227. 
Bru'ges, 217. 

Bru'sa, Ottoman Capital, 221. 
Brussels', 300, 305. 
Brussels', Union of, 301. 
Buckingham, Geo., Duke of, 308, 318. 
Bu'da, Hungarian Capital, 273, 274. 
Buena Vista (bwa'na), 423. 
Buenos Ayres (bwa'nos I'res), 421, 

422. 
Bulgaria, Bulgarians, 171, 175, 177, 

412, 413. 
Bunker Hill, battle of, 363, 364. 
Bunyan, John, 314. 
Bur'gundy, Burgundlans, 159, 169, 

184, 187, ISll, 199,238-241, 267, 298. 
Burgundy, Dukes of: 

Philip the Bold (A. D. 1363), 237,241. 

John tlie Fearless (1404), 237. 

Philip the tiood (1419), 237, 238, 241. 

Charles the Bold (1467), 238, 239, 241. 
Burgundy, Duchess of, Mary (1477- 

14821, 239, 245. 
Byron, Lord, 365. 
Byzan'tium, 1-54. 



Cabot, J. and S., 2.55, 259. 

Ca'diz, 302. 

Cad'mus, 61. 

Cse'sar, Julius, 134-139. 

Cae'sar Octavianus, 137. See Roman 

Empei'oi's: Augustus. 
Cse'sar, (title), 135, 152, 342, 386. 
Cairo, iS5. 

Calais i ka la'), 227, 2;?8, 292, 296. 
Calcut'ta, 373. 
Califor'nia, 257, 297, 423. 
Calvin, John, 272, 278, 279, 282. 
Cambray', League of, 265 ; Treaty at, 

267. 
Campo Forraio, Treaty of, 385. 
Canaanites, 19, 25. 
Can'ada, 3:!i), 331, 366, 426, 427. 
Canos'sa, 191, 193, 
Canterbury, 225, 232, 318. 
Canton, 374. 

Capet ikfi pa'), 199, 234-239, 381. 
Cappadocia, 21, 37. 
Carabo'bo, battle at, 422. 
Carbonari (carbona'ri), (Ital. secret 

society), 396. 
Car'chemish i-ke-), 21. 44. 
Carlos, Spanish prince, 399. 
Carlos, Grandson of above, 407. 
Carlotta, Empress, 406, 416. 
Carolina, U. S., 269, 286, 331. 

Carthage, 20, 47-49, 121-12.5, 136, 161, 174. 



Cashmere, 15. 

Cassan'der, 99. 

Castes in Egypt, 46, 47. 

Castile l-teel'), 254, 258, 268. 

Catherine of Aragou, 264, 288, 289. 

Catherine Howard, 290, 297. 

Catherine Parr, 290, 297. 

Catiline, 133. 

Ca'to, 125, 128. 

Caudine Forks, llti. 

Cavaignac (ka vtlN yak). Gen., 400, 

403. 

Cawnpore, 375. 

Caxton, William, 231, 23;3. 

Ce'eil, 295. 

Celts, 16, 17, 119, 128, 169, 171. 

Ceylon', 20. 

Cheerone'a, battle, 79, 97. 

Chaldasa, chaldpeans, 10, 13, 15, 17. 

Chalons (sliii Ion), 161, 163. 

Champagne, I slianipane). Counts of, 
199. 

Champlain', Lake, 331, 420. 

Champlain', Samuel, 331, *M. 

Charlemagne. See Rom. Emperors 
< if the ^ye.^it. 

Charles Martel', 180, 184. 

Charleston, U. S., 423, 424. 

Charter, The Great (Magna Charta), 
22(), 233. 

Charterhouse, Monks of, 290. 

Chau'cer, 249, 2'i2. 

China, S, 209, 220, 221, 223, 253, 277, 329, 
366, 374, 423. 

Christians under Moslem rule, 185, 
369, 411-413. 

Christians under Roman Empire, 
143, 145, 149, 152-155, 162, 167. 

Cicero, i;«, 137, 139. 

Cilicia, Cilicians, 21, 133. 

Cimbri, 131. 

Cimme'rians, Crimeans, 21. 

Ci'mon, 72, 73. 

Cities, 7, 168, 216, 217, 234. 

Civil War in England, 310; in Amer- 
ica, 423-42.5. 

Clement V., Pope, 215, 236. 

Clement VII. Pope, 272, 273, 289, 

Clients, Roman. 107, 110, 113, 126. 

Clisthenes (cli'sthcnes), 67. 

Clive, Robert, 37.!, 377. 

Clotil'da, 169, 170, 172. 

Clo'vis (Chlodwig), 169-172; Succes- 
sors of, 170, 173, 179, 180. 

Cnidus(ni'-),58, 77. 

Col'bert (-ber),352, 353. 

Coligny (ko leen'ye), 282, 286,331, ;134. 

Colise'um, 144. 

Colom'bia, S. A., 420, 421. 

Col'onies, Ancient, 48, 54, 62, 88, 118. 

Colonies, Modern European, 328- 
3:{5, 3b-2-364, 375, 376, 378. 

Columbus, Christopher, 25-5-259. 

Commerce, 15, 19-23,26,48. 64,100,175, 
209, 21.5-217. 253, 2.5.5, 293, 303, 372-374. 

Commonwealth, English, 310-312, 
319. 

Conde (con da'),Prinee of, 282, 286, 351. 



(4S7) 



Con 



INDEX. 



Eng 



Constance, I'eace of, 214; Council 

at, 243, 215, 271. 
Con'stantine, Grand Duke, 398. 
Constantino'ple, 154, 161, 170, 174, 175, 

179, 186, 194, 195, 204, 207, 209, 221, 222, 

273, 367, 412. 
Constantius, Csesar, 153. 
Consuls, Roman, 107, 116-119, 123, 133, 

134, 140, 170. 
Corday, Charlotte, :382, .393. 
Cor'dova, 180, 183. 
Cor'inth, 59, 103, 136, 159. 
Cor'inth, Congresses at, 79, 94. 
Corinthian War, 76, 77. 
Coriolanus (eoriola'nus), 113, 114. 
Corneille (kor nal'), 355. 
Cornelia, 130. 

Corn Ltuvs in Eng., 365-367. 
Cornwallis, Lord, 364. 
Coronse'a, battles at, 74, 77. 
Cor'sica, 122, 123. 
Corun'na, battle at, 389. 
Cossacks, 21,344. 
Covenanters, 309-311. 
Cranmer, 289-292. 
Crassus, Rom. Consul, 133, 134. 
Crecy krase),227. 
Crete, o5, 181, 215, 367. 
Crime'a, 21, 96, 138, 344, 367, 368. 
Croats, 323. 
Croe'sus, 21, 24, 58. 
Cromwell, O., 310-312, 318, 319. 
Cromwell, R., 312. 
Cronstadt (crou'stat), in Russia, 

368. 
Croto'na, 89. 
Crusades, 203-212. 
Ctes'iphon, 1.50. 
Cuba, 2'iil, 427. 
CuUo'den, battle at, 361. 
Cunax'a, defeat of Cyrus at, 37. 
Custozza I koos tod'za), 407. 
Cyc'lades, 60 
Cynoceph'alae, 102. 
Cy'prus, 32, 77, 210, 215, 412. 
Cyrus the Younger, 36, 37, 41, 88. 



Dacia, 144, 149. 

Damas'cus. 20, 178, 212. 

Damiet'ta, 207, 208. 

Danes in EriKliuid, 195, 201. 

Dan'te, 216, 1'ls, 251. 

Danton', ••>S2, 3S3. 

Dantzic, 38.s. 

Danube, -34, 131, 141, 152, 159, 222, 366, 

412. 
Dark Ages, 167, 168, 187, 213. 
Darnley, H. Stuart, Lord, 293. 
David, 26; descendants of, 15, 27. 
Decius, Consul, 116. 
Delaware Bay, 335; river, 331, 333; 

State of, ,335. 
Delhi, 221, 372, 375. 
Delos Island, .59, 72. 
Delphi, .57, .58, 60, 71. 
Deme'ter (Ceres), .56, .57, 62. 
Deluge. Flood, 9, 13, 21. 



(438) 



Demos'thenes, 79, 83, 102. 
Denmark, Danes, 194, 195, 272, 322, 

336, ;i:!7, ;i:;y, 406. 
Det'ting-en, battle at, 361. 
Diets of the Empire, 186, 190, 207, 

271, 325. 
Dionys'us, 57, 87. 
Directory, French, 384, 385. 
Dorians, .58-65, 81. 
Dorylse'um, battle at, 204. 
Dow'lah, Surajah, 373. 
Dra'co, 65. 

Drake, Francis, 293, 294, 297. 
Dublin, 310, 41.5. 
Dunbar, battle at, 311. 
Dunkirk, 312, 313. 
Duquesne (kane'). Fort, 362. 
Dutch, .■iOl-303, 311, 312, 328, 331, 333. 



East India Co., English, 307, 372-375, 

377, .378; Dutch, 335. 
Ebro (a'bro), 123, 185. 
Ecbat'ana, 31, 33. 
Edinburgh (-boro), 311, 361. 
Edward, Black Prince, 227, 228. 
Eg'mont, Count, 300. 
Egypt, Kgvptiaiis, 10-12, 2.5, .32, 33, 36, 

37, 42-52, !M-1(I2, I'dO, 207, 385, 418. 
Egypt, Greek Rulers of: Ptolemy I. 
(B. C.-323), 98-101, 105. 

Ptolemy II. (283), 101. 

Ptolemy III. (247-222), 101. 

Cleoiiatra (51-30), 101, 102, 137. 
El'eanor of Aquitaine, 232, 234. 
Electors, German, 242, 246, 266, 276, 

322, 325, 362. 
Eleusinian Mysteries, 57, 75. 
E'lis, .59. 
Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, 308, 

317. 
England, .English, 169, 19.5-198, 201, 

2112, 22.5-2.33, 287-297, 306-319, 352, 3.54, 

.•lii(l-;;7,s, 411-415, 425. 
England, Sovereigns of: 

Saxon Line. 

Alfred (A. D. 871-901), 19.5, 201, 249. 
Ethelred II. (978-1016), 195. 
Edward the Confessor (1042), 197, 

202. 
Harold II. (1066), 197, 202. 

Norman Line. 

William I. (1066), 197, 202. 
William II. dO.ST). 197. 
Henry I. (1100), lit?, 198. 
Stephen (1135), 198, 225. 

Plantagenets. 

Henry II. (11.54), 198, 22.5, 226. 232, 234. 
Rieliard I. (1189), 206-209, 212, 226. 
John (1199), 206, 226, 2i&. 
Henry III. (1216), 226, 233, 235. 



Eng 



INDEX. 



Fta 



England (Plantagenets continued): 

Edward I. (1272), 208, 226, 3H3. 
Edward II. (1307), 227. 
Edward III. (1327), 227, 228, 240. 
Richard II. (1377), 228, 245. 

House of Lancaster. 

Henry IV. (1399), 228, 229. 
Henry V. (1413), 229, 237. 238. 
Henry VI. (1422), 229-231, 238. 



House of York. 

Edward IV. (14tU), 230, 231, 2*3. 
Edward V. (1483), 231. 
Richard III. (1483), 231. 

TUDORS. 

Henry VII. (1485), 231, 255, 287, 296, 
Henry VIII. (1509), 264, 266, 267, 275, 

287-291. 
Edward VI. (1547), 290, 291. 
Mary I. (15.53), 288, 291, 292. 
Elizabeth (1558), 282, 291-295, 300, 332. 

Stuarts. 

James I. (1603), .306-308. 
Charles I. (162.5-1648), 308-310. 
Charles II. (1660), 310-314. 
James II. (168.5), 314-316. 

( William III. (1688), 315, 316, 338, 
\ 353. 

(.Mary II. (1688-1694), 315, 316. 
Anne (1702), 316, 317, 360. 

House of Brunswick 

George I. (1714), 360, 361. 

George II. (1727), 361, 362. 

George III. (1760), 362-365, 387, 428. 

George IV. (1820), 365. 

William IV. (1830), 366, .371. 

Victoria (1837), 366, 367, 371, 376. 
English Language, 172, 249. 
Epaminon'das, 78, 82. 
Eph'esus, 1.59. 

Erie, Lake, battle on, 420, 428. 
Ethio'pia, 11, 12, 50, 51. 
Etrus'cans, 106, 108-110, 112-114, 117. 
Eudes (Odo), C't of Paris, 199. 
Eug'enie, Empress, 408, 409. 
Eugenius IV. Pope (1431), 244. 
Euphrates (euphra'tes), 7, 10, 14, 1.5, 

21,26, .32, 141, 1.51,1.52. 
Eurip'ides, 87. 
Europe, 8, 16, 17, 26, 6.5, 96, 1.58-161, 

167-175, 18.5, etc. 
Eux'ine, Hee Black Sea. 
Evesham, battle at, 226. 
Eylau (i'low), battle at, 388. 
Ezra, 28. 



Fa'bius, Rom. Dictator, 124. 

Fairfax, Eng. Gen., 310, 318. 

Farel (fa rel'), 272, 278. 

Fawkes, Guy, 307. 

Fenelon (f6n'61on). 355. 

Ferrara (fer ra'ra)i Council at, 244 

Fei-rara, Ren'6e, Duchess of, 279. 

Feudal System, 188, 189, 205, 209. 

Fijide je') Is.,376. 

Fire of London, 313. 

Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 290. 

Flodden, battle at, 288. 

Flor'ence, 216, 249, 251, 264, 268. 

Foix ifwiii, Ga.ston de, 266. 

Fontenaye' battle at, 187. 

France, French, 145, 160, 170, 179, 180, 

187, 19.5-208, 227-232, 2W-241, 254, 274, 

280-286, mo, 331, &14-360, 379-410. 
France, Rulers of: 

Hugh.Capet (-pa') (A. D. 987), 199. 

Robert the Pious (996), 199. 

Henry I. (1031), 200. 

Philip I. (1060). 

Louis VI. (1108), 234. 

Louis VII. (1137), 206, 225, 232, 234. 

Philip II. (1180), 206, 226, 234. 

Louis VIII. (1223), 235. 

Louis IX. (1226), 208, 235, 239,240. 

Philip III. (1270), 235. 

Philip IV. (1285), 236, 240. 

Louis X. (1314), 236. 

Philip V. (1316), 236. 

Charles IV. (1322), 2.36. 

Famii^y of Valois. 

Philip VI. (1328), 227, 236, 240. 
John (13.50), 227, 228, 2.37. 
Charles V. (1.364), 237, 241. 
Charles VI. (1380), 229, 2.37. 
Charles VII. (1422), 229, 230. 237, 238, 

241. 
Louis XI. (1461), 238, 239. 
Charles VIII. (148.3), 2.39, 254, 26.3-265, 

268. 

House of Orleans. 

Louis XII. (1498), 265, 266, 280. 
Francis I. (151.5), 266, 267,269,280,281. 
Henry II. (1.547), 281, 286. 
Francis II. (1,5.59), 281, 282, 286. 
Charles IX. (1560), 282, 283, 286. 
Henry III. (1.574), 283, 284. 

Family of Bourbon. 

Henry IV. (1589), 282, 284, 286, 348, 

349. 
Louis XIIL (1610), 349, ,3.50. 
Louis XIV. (1643), 31.5, 316, 331, 341, 

a50-355. 
Louis XV. (1715), .3.5.5-357. 
Louis XVI. (1774-1793), 457, 379-382. 
Louis XVII. (King only in name). 

.382 
National Convention (1792), 381-384. 



{439) 



Fra 



INDEX. 



Ham 



France, Rulers of (continued) : 
directory (1795), 38-J, 385. 
Three Consuls, N. Bonaparte, First, 

(1799), 385, 386. 

First French Empire. 

Napoleon I. (1804-1814), 386-392. Hee 
Bona'parte. 

Bourbons Restored. 

Louis XVIII. (1814), 384, 391, 398. 
Charles X. (1824), 391, 398. 

Second House of Orleans. 
Louis Philippe (1830), 398, 399. 
Second French Republic. 

LouJs Napoleon Bonaparte Pres. 

(1848), 400, 401, 403, 404. 

Second French Empire. 

Napoleon III. (1852-1870), 405-409. 

Third French Republic. 

A. Thiers, President (1871). 409-411. 

P. MeMahon, President (1873), 405, 
408,411. 

Grf'vy, President (1879), 411. 
Franche Comt6 (froNsh koN ta'), 

(Countv of Burgundy), 352. 
Franco'nia, 188, 190, 192. 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, 32.5, 395. 
Franks, LSI, 159, 160, 169, 170, 184-189, 

191, 192. 236, a5a. 
Frederic, Elector Palatine, 308, 318, 

322, 325. 
Fremont, General, 423. 
French Revolutions, 357, 373, 379-38,5, 

3i»5, .Sfl8-4(K). 
Friesland (frepz'-), 300. 
Friuli (free oo'le), 188. 
Fronde, The, 351, 458. 
Fulton, Robert, 421. 



Gaeta (gii il'ta), 401. 

Games, Greek, 59, 85. 

Ganges River, 7. 374. 

Gardner, Bisliop. 292. 

Garibaldi (-biil'dri, 401, 406. 

Gates, General, 361. 

Gaul, Gauls, 114, 117, 123, 124, \U, m>. 

15!t, 168. 
Gaza, 266, ;iS5. 

Gemblours (zhoN bloor'), 301. 
Gene'va, 27S, 279, 425. 
Genghis Khan, 208, 220. 223. 
Gen'oa, 215, 224. 
Georgia, 362. 



German'icus, Rom. General, 142. 
Germany, Germans, 8, 17, 134, 142, 

145, 147, 148, 151, 155, 158-161, 169-173, 

180. 
Germany, Kings of, become Roman 

Emperors, 184-193, 213, 214, 242-246. 
Germany, Rise of Cities in, 185, 216, 

217. 
Germany, Language and Literature 

of, 218, 249. 
Germany, Reformation and Wars 

of Religion in, 270-278, 320-32.5. 
Germany, Wars of Austria and 

Prus,sia. 341-;i45, 407. 
Germany, Wars with Napoleon, 

;«t}-395. 
Germany, Revoluions in (1848), 400, 

401. 
Germany, Unification of, 406-409. 
Germany, William I. Emperor of 

(1871), 409, 414. 
Gettysburg, battle at, 424. 
Ghent, 299, 3(»1 ; Treaty of, 420. 
Ghib'ellines, 212, 213, 216, 251. 
Gibral'tar, 354. 
Girond'ists, 381, 382. " 
Gladstone, Hon. W. E., 414, 41.5, 417. 
Glencoe, Massacre at, 316. 
Godfrey of Bouillon (boo eel'yoN'), 

204, 205, 211. 
Good Hope, Cape of, 48, 2.55. 
Goths, 152, 158-163, 167. 170-174, 179, 

186. 
Grac'chus, Tiberius, 129, 137. 
Grac'chus, Caius. 130, 137, 1:38. 
" Grand Alliance," The, 316. 
Granicus (grani'cus) River, battle, 

.37, 94. 
Granson', battle at, 239. 
"Great Powers," Five, .369, 396; Six, 

412,413. 
Greece, Greeks, 9, 13, 17, 21, ;M-;38,41, 

48, .52-105, 125, 135, 159, 196, 365, 397, 

398, 413. 
Greece, Kings of: 

Otho of Bavaria (1832), 398, 402. 

Geor^'e of Denmark (1863), 40.3. 
Gregory III., Pope, 184. 
Gregory VII., Pope, 190, 191. 193. 
Gregory XI., Pope, 215. 
Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty at, 423. 
Guel'ders, 298, a52. 
Guelfs, 212-216. 251. 
Guin'ea, 293. 
Guiscard', Robert, 196. 
Guiscard', Roger, 196, 197. 
Guise (geez). House of. 281-285; Dukes 

of, 2S2-2S6; JIarv of, 281. 
Gunpowder, 209", 220, 253, 263. 
Gutenberg, John, 254. 



Haarlem, Siege of, 300. 
Hadriano'ple, Viattle, 159. 
Halicarnas'sus, 5.s, ,S7. 
Ham, Haniites, 10, 42. 
Hamathites, 21. 
Ham'ilcar, 123, 126, 127 

(440) 



1 



Ham 



INDEX. 



Jew 



Hampden, John, 309, 318. 

Hannibal, 12;)-12s. 

Hanover, Electorate and Kingdom, 

3fj0, o(i(i, oSy; House of, in England, 

317, 3(i()-;i67. 
Hanseatic League, The, 217, 219. 
Hapsburgs, House of Austria, 214, 

21S, -JIK, L'l:., -Hu, -JOS, 320-325, 312, 319, 

:%0. .'ftl, .'iSfi, :ill(i, -1(10, 407. 
Haroun al Kasi'hi<l, ISO, 183, 18ti. 
Harrison, (jt^i., 42o, 428. 
Has'drubal, 121, 12S. 
Hastings, battle of, 197, 202. 
Hastings, Warren, 373, 377, 378. 
Havana (havii'na), 362. 
Hebrews (Israelites, Jews), 11, 12, 15, 

19-30, 33, 44, 47, 49, 57, 141, 148, 149, 2.5.5, 

411. 
Heeatse'us, 87. 
Hector, 55. 

Hegira dif'j'ira), 178, 182. 
Heliop'olis, 4.5, 46. 
Helle'nes, 53, 56, 58. See Oreeks. 
Hellespont, 3.5-37, 94, 101. 
Helots, 61, 68, 7.!-75. 
Henrietta Maria, Queen, 308. 
Henry the Navigator, 2.58. 
Herculaneum, 144. 
Her'cules, ^54. 

Herman i Arniinius), 142, 147. 
Her'mes, 56, 62. 
Herod'otus, 87. 
Heroes, (ireek, .54-56, 61. 
Herzegovina (h&rt ze go've na), 412, 

413. 
Hesiod, 85, 86, 92. 
Hestia, 56, 62. 

Hil'debrand. See Gregory VII. 
Hindustan (hindustan'). See India. 
Hit'tites, 21. 

Hohenlinden, battle, .385. 
Hohenstaufen(-stow'fen),21.3,214,246. 
Holland, 298-305, 311, 452-354, 364, 38 !, 

396, 398. 
Holland, Wm. I., king of, .396. 
" Holy Alliance," The, 396, 397. 
Holy Land. See Palestine. 
Homer, 5.5-59, 66, 84-86, 92. 
Hong Kong, 374. 
Horace, Latin Poet, 141. 
Hortensius, Laws of, 117. 
Ho'rus, 51. 
Hos'pitallers (Kniglits of St. John), 

205, 21(J, 236, 272, 320, .326. 
Howard, Lord, of Efflnghara, 294. 
Howe, Lord, Eng. Gen., 364. 
Hudson, Henry, 331,335; River, 312, 

.331, 3.3.5, 421. 
Huguenots, 282-284, 308, 331, 334, 348- 

a50, 353. 
Hungary. Hungarians, 185, 222, 272- 

276, .321, .322, 34:;, 400, 407. 
Huniades (-yii'daz), 222. 
Huns, 159, 161, 163, 18.3, 188. 
Huron, Lake, .3:^. 
Huss (hooss), Hussites, 243-246. 
Hyder .\li (a'lee), 373, 378. 
Hyrca'nus, i;33. 



Ibe'rians, 17, 128. 

Iliad, The, 55, 66, 92, 97, 317. 

Illinois', 334. 

lUyr'icum, Illyrians, .58, 1*5, 171. 

Images in Churches, War for, 175, 
177, 178, 184. 

India, 8, 10, 11, 15, 20, 32, 34, 52, 96, 97, 
220-224, 328, 362, 372-375. 

Indians, N. Am., 256, 259, ;5;^0,331,334, 
3;i5, 362, 382, 425, 426. 

Indies, Ka.st and West, 255, 302, 303. 

Inaus Kiver, 7, 15,96. 

Innocent III., Poiic, 207, 226, 234. 

Inquisition, Flenii.'^h, 2!i0, .100. 

Inquisition, Spanish, 2.')4, 255. 

lonians, 17, 58-60, 63, 85, 87. 

Ipsus, battle at, 99. 

Ireland, 16, 225, 294, 307-311, 315, 316, 
367, 415. 

Iroquois, (Ir o kwa), a31, 334. 

Isabella, "Archduke," 302. 

Isabella of France, Queen of Eng- 
land, 227. 

Israel, Israelites. See Hebretrs. 

Israel, Jeroboam, I., King of, 27. 

Issus, battle at, 37, 95, 97. 

Italy, Italians, 17, 21, 48, .53, .58, 106, 
114-118, 131, 135, 1.51, 161, 168, 170-175, 
181-190, 196, 213-218, 263-267, 281, 320, 
349, 355, 384, 385, 395, 396, 400, 401, 405- 
407, 410. 

Italy, Kings of: 
Victor Emanuel I. (1861), 40.5-407, 

410, 416. 
Humbert I. (1878), 410. 

Iturbide (e toor be'da), 421. 

Ivry (e vi'e'), battle at, 348. 



Jackson, Gen., 420, 429. 
Jacobins, Fr. Radicals, 381-38.3. 
Jacobites, Eng. and Scotch Tories, 

360. 
Jacquerie (zhak're), 228. 
Jaffa (Joppa), 206, 207, 385. 
Jamaica, 311, 366. 
James, Duke of York, 312, 313, 335. 

See England, Kings of, Jos. II. 
Jamestow^n, 307. 
Jane Grey, 291, 297. 
Jane Seymour, 290. 
Janizaries, 222, 224. 
Japan', 8, 223, 277, 329, 423. 
Japhet, 9, 21. 
Jason, 55. 

JeflPerson, Thomas, 420, 428. 
Jeffreys, Eng. Judge, 315. 
Jena (.va'na), 387, 397. 
Jerome of Prague, 243, 246. 
Jerusalem, 12, 20, 26-28, 100, 1.33, 144, 

148, 149, 20;^20S, 211. 
Jerusalem, Kings of: 

Godfrey (1099), 204, 205, 211. 

Baldwin I. (1100), 205. 

Guy of Lusignan (1186-1192), 206. 

Frederic II.. Emperor (1229), 208. 
Jesuits, 276, 277, .321, 329, .334. 
Jews, 172, 255. See Hebrews. 



(441) 



Joa 



INDEX. 



Mar 



Joan of Arc, 229, 230, 241. 
John of Austria, 301, 321. 
John of Gaunt, 228, 258. 
John XXIII., Pope, 243. 
Juarez (wa'rathe), Mex. Pres., 406. 
Judffi'a, Kingdom of, 100, 12(i. 
Judah, Kingdom of, 12, 27. 
Judah, Kings of: 

.losiali, Zedekiah, 27. 
Judas ^laccabte'us, 100, 105. 
Jugurtha, 130, 131. 
Julius II., Pope, 265, 266. 
Junot (zhu no'), 388, 389. 
Jupiter, 62, 108. 120, 151. 



Karnak, 47. 

Kearney (kar'-), Gen., 423. 

Kep'ler, 321, 326, 327. 

Kiev, 191, 347. 

Kirke, Kng. Col., .315. 

Koran, 17,s, 182. 

Koscius'ko, 345, 347. 

Kossuth (kosli shoot'), Louis, 400. 

Koster, Laurence, 254. 

Kot'zebue, 397. 

Kublai Khan, 221, 223, 224. 



Lacedse'mon, 54, 58. 

" Ladies' Peace," The, 267. 

La-fa-yette', 380, .392, 393. 

La Fontaine', 355. 

Lancaster, House of, 229-231, 287. 

La Salle, 331, a34. 

Las Casas (ciis'as), 256, 257, 2.59. 

Lat'imer, Bishop, 292. 

Latin Language, 168, 186, 247, 248. 

Latium, Latins, 106, 112, 11(5-118. 

Laud, .\rch bishop, ,309. 

Laws, Roman, 114, 171, 173-175, 248. 

League, The, of French Nobles, 283, 

:!4S-35(). 
Learning, lf.8, ISO, 247-254. 
Lebanon, Mt., 20, 29, 209. 
Legnano (len yii'no), 214. 
Leipsie (ITpe'), battles at, 323, 391. 
Lemnos Isl., 77, 80. 
Leo IV., Pope, 181; X., Pope, 266, 267. 
Leon'idas, 35, 71. 
Leonine City, 181,410. 
Lepanto, battle of, 321, 326. 
Lep'idus, 136, 137, 146. 
Leuc'tra, battle at, 78. 
Leuthen (loi'ten), 343. 
Lexington, battle at, 363. 
Leyden di'dn), 8iege of, 300. 
Liberals In Europe, 39(3-101. 
Libraries, 12, 66, 98, 100, 101, 185, 249, 

252. 
Licinian Laws, 115, 119. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 423, 424. 
Literature, Ki, 12, 13, 84-93, 96-103, 141, 

KiS, 248-252, 295, 317, 351, 355. 
Livy, Rom. Historian, 141. 
Locke, John, 314. 
Lo'dK -de), battle, 384. 
Loire (Iwar) River, 169,229. 



Lollards, 22'.i. 

Lombardy, Lombards, 131, 170-173, 

184, 185, 196, 214, 215, 265. 
London, 217, 291, .302, 310-313, 367. 
Londonderry, 8icge of, '115. 
Lorne, Marquis of, 427, 429. 
Lorraine, 1S7, 285, 350, 409,410; Dukes 

of, 2(14, 2S1, 342. 
Louis of Nassau, Count, 300. 
Louisiana, 331, 419. 
Louvois (loo vwJi'), 3.53. 
Low Countries. See NetherlaiKjx. 
Lowositz, battle, 34.3. 
Loyola, Ignatius, 276, 277. 
Lucknow, Siege of, 375. 
Lusita'nia (Portugal), 12(). 
Luther, 270, 271, 277, 27S. 
Lutherans, 321. 
Lutzen (loot zen), Ijattles at, 324, 336, 

39(1. 
Luxemburg, Province, 352. 
Luxor Palace, 47. 
Lycur'gus, 6.!-(i5, 67, 68. 
Lydia, Lydians, 21-24, .32, 36. 
Lydia, Kintcs of: 

Ardvsd!. C. 678-629), 21. 

Cra-siis (5(i(.)-546), 21-24, 58. 
Lyons, 145. 
Lysim'achus, 99. 



IVCaca'o 329. 

McMahon,' Marshal, 405, 408, 416. 

Macedonia, Macedonians, 35, 38, 78, 

79, 94-105, 124, 125, 132. 
Macedonia, Kings of: 

Philip II. (B. C. 359-336), 78, 79, 8.3. 

Alexander (336-323), 90, 94-98, 105. 

Cassander (31.5-296), 99. 

Philip V. (220-178), 102, 103. 

Perseus (178-167), 103. 
Madrid, 388. 

Magdebvirg, Capture of, .323. 
Magel'lan, 256. 
Magenta, l)attle, 405. 
Magi, Magian, 31, 33, 34. 
Magnesia, Rom. victory at, 125. 
Magyars, 188, 189. 
Maine, Ct)unty of, France, 207, 232. 
Maintenon (ma>'t noN'), Mme, ;i53. 
Malek Shall, 203. 
Malplaquet (-pla ka'), 354. 
Mal'ta, 210, 320, .326. 
Mamelukes, 208, 209, 385, 418. 
Mandeville, Sir Jolin, 249, 252. 
Manlius Titus, 116. 
Mantine'a, battle, 78. 
Maoris, 376, 378. 
Marat (ma ra'), 382. 
Mar'athon, .35, 70, 80, 85. 
Marco Polo, 221, 223, 221. 
Mardo'nius, 36, 72. 
Marengo, battle, 385. 
Margaret of Anjou (ttN zhoo'), 230. 
Margaret of Navarre, 272, 279. 
Maria Leczin'ska, .3.56. 
Maria Louisa, Empress, 389. 
Marian I'arty (Rom.,) 132-134. 



(442) 



Mar 



INDEX. 



Nin 



Marie Antoinette, '&t, liSU 1182, 
Marienburg (raa re'en boorg), 210, 

3-10. 
Marignano (mil ren ya'no), 266, 278. 
Marius, Caius, 130-132. 
Marlborough, Duke of, 316, 317. 
Marlborough, Duche.ss of, 316, 317. 
Mars, R >in. god of war, 62, 108. 
Marseilles (-salz'), 274. 
Marston Moor, battle, 310. 
Maryland, 332. 
Massachusetts, 332, 363. 
Massillon (nia seel yoN'). '555. 
Matilda of England, 108. 
Maurice of Nassau, 302, 334. 
Mazarin (mii za raN'), 350, ;V)1. 
Mazzini (matse'ue), 401. 
Mecca, 178, 182. 
Mecklenburg, 323. 
Me'dia, Mcdes, 12, 13, 31, 40, 70. 
Me'dia, Kiiiss "f: 

< 'vnxares (B. C. 634), 13. 

Astyages (r)94-.")60), 13. 
Medo-Persian Empire. See Persia. 
Medici (uied'e clie), 216, 264. 

Catherine de", 281, 284, 2*5. 

Cosmo de', 216, 

John de'. Bee Leo. X, Pope. 

Lorenzo, 216, 249, 2.52. 

ISIarie de', 349. 
Medina (ma de'na), 178, 182. 
Mediterranean Sea, 10-12, 19, 26, 29, 

30, 95, 101, 133, 141, 179, 181, 217, 235, 

274, 275, :i54, 413. 
Mehemet All (a'lee), 418. 
Melbourne, 376. 
Memphis, 42, 46. 
Menela'us, 55. 
MenschikofiF, Prince, 340. 
Mentz, 242, 323. 
Mesopotamia, 18, 29, 144, 150. 
Messenia, Messenians, 58, 73, 78, 86. 
Messiah born, 141. 
Metel'lus, Consul, 122. 
Metz, 281, 408, 409. 
Mexico, 25ti, 294, 406, 421, 422. 
Mexico, Maximilian, Emp., 406, 416. 
Michigan, 420. 
Middle Ages, 8, 167. 
" Middle Kingdom," 187, 2.38. 
Mil'an, 153, 160, 189, 214,215, 264-267, 406. 
Miletus, 35, 88. 
Miltiades, 70, 79, 80. 
Milton, John, 314, 319. 
Minor'ca, 354. 
Mississippi River, 257, 331, 356, 357, 

420, 424. 
" Mississippi Scheme," 355, 3.56. 
Mityle'ne, 75, 88. 
Modena, 405. 

Mogul Empire, 221, 372, .375. 
Mohacz, battle, 27.3, 279. 
Mohammed, 178, 181, 182. 
Mohammedans, 177-183, 222, 274, 27.5. 
Moldavia. See Moumania. 
Moliere (mo le er'), 3.55. 
Mongols, Mongolians, 30,220-224, .3.37. 
Monmouth, Duke of, 314, 315. 



Moutebel lo, buttle, 405. 
Montene'gro, 412, 413. 
Monterey', 406, 422. 
Montfort, Simon de, persecutes Al- 

bigenses, 23.5. 
Montfort, Simon de. Son, leads 

English Barons, 226. 
Montpensier (moN poN se a), Duke 

of, 399. 
Montreal', 330. 
Moore, Sir John, 389. 
Moors, 42, 2.54, 256. 
Morat (-rii'), battle, 239. 
More, Sir Thomas, 290. 
More'a, 21.5. 
Moreau (-ro'), 385. 
Moscow, 390. 
Munich, 343. 

Munster, (iniinster). Treaty at, .325. 
Munychia (-nik'ia), 77. 
Murat (mil ra'), 388. 
Myc'ale, battle at, 72. 



Nancy (noN'se), battle, 239. 
Nantes, Edict of, .3;:il, 349, a50, a53. 
Nantes, Executions at, 384. 
Naples, 171, 189. 
Naples, Kingdom of, 189, 197, 237, 2.54, 

26:3-265, 356, 396. 
Naples, Queen Joanna of, 237, 240, 

241. 
Nar'ses, 174. 
Nase'by, battle at, 310. 
Navarino (navare'no), battle, 366, 

397. 
Navarre, (-vilr'), 208, 2.54, 286. 
Navarre, King Charles of, 237, 240. 
Navarre, King Henry of. See 

France, Kings of, Henry IV. 
Necho, 44. 

Nelson, Admiral, 38.5-387, 394. 
Netherlands, 187, 217, 238, 239, 24.5, 

2.54, 264, 276, 293, 298-304, 320, 384, 398. 
Netherlands, Austrian, 3.55, 385, 395. 
Netherlands, Spanish, 302, a51-3.>5. 
Netherlands, rnitc.l, .lOO, 303, .325. 
Netherlands, Kin-dom of, 396, 398. 
Netherlands, New, 331. 
New'foundland, 201, 2.57. 
New Jersey, 331, 335. 
New Mexico, 423. 
New Orleans, 355, 356, 420. 
Newspapers, 362, 363. 
Newton, Sir Isaac, 314, .318. 
New York, 269, 3:51, .335, 364, 415, 426. 
New Zealand, 376, 378. ■ 
Niagara, -'vM, 362, 420. 
Nibelungen (ne'ba loong-en), 163, 

249, 
Nice (neess), Nicse'ain Bithynia, 154, 

157, 204. 
Nicopolis, battle, 222. 
Niemen (nee'men), R., 388. 
Nightingale, Florence, 368. 
Nile, R., 7, 42. 46, 51, 95, 207, 385. 
Nimeguen (ne ma'gen), 300, 353. 
Nin'eveh, Ninevites, 11, 13, 18. 



(443) 



Nom 



INDEX. 



Phr 



Nomads, 7, 25, 27, 30, 32, 34, 3o, 220. 
Nordlingen (iiurt'ling-en), 324. 
Normandy, Normans, 194-199, 202, 

207, 2:;2, 382. 
Northmen, 188, 194, 195, 201. 
Northumberland, Duke of, 291, 297. 
Norway, Norwegians, 48, 202, 337. 
Notre Dame (notr dame), 382. 
Nova Scotia, 201, 330. 
Novgorod, 194. 
Numantia, 12ti, 128. 
Numidia, 130. 



Gates, Titus, 313. 

Octavian. See Roman Emperors, 

Aiif/ustus. 
Odo'acer, 101, 107. 
Od'yssey, 84, 85, 92. 
CE'ta (O'ta), ML, 3.5, 71. 
O'glethorpe, Gen., 302, 370. 
Ohio K., a50. 
Oldenburg, House of, in Denmark, 

330. 
Olga. Queen, of Russia, 195, 200. 
Olym'pic, Games, 59, 78, 87. 
Olym'pus, Mt., .50. 
Omar Pasha', 307. 
Ommi'ades, 180, 182. 
Or'acles, 57, 58, 71, 109. 
Orange, Princes of: 

William the Silent, 299-305. 

Maurice, .302, .334. 

William Henry, 315, 352, 353. 

See England, Kings of, William 
III. 
Orino'co, R., 255. 
Orkneys Is., 294. 
Orl'eans, ( ii.v, 2.30, 241. 
Orl'eans, Duke of, Bro. of Uhs. VI. 

237. 
Orl'eans, Duke of. Regent of France, 

a55, .359, 360. 
Orl'eans, Duke of, called "Ph. Ega- 

llt6,";«i. 
Orl'eans, Louis Pliilippe, Duke of, 

398. (See France, Kings of.) 
Orl'eans, Duke of. Son of L. Phil- 
ippe, 398. 
Orl'eans, Duchess of, .399, 403. 
Oron'tes, R., 21, 29, 99. 
Osi'ris, 45, 40. 

Osnabruck, Congress at, .325. 
Ostracism, 00, 07, 09, 7.3. 
Ostrogoths, 159, 170. 
Othman, 221. 
Ottawa R., .331. 

Ottoman Empire, 221, .321, 411, 412. 
Oude (owd), 375. 
Oudenarde, battle, .354. 
Overys'sel, 298, 3.52. 
Ov'id, Ml. 

Oxenstiern, 324, 327, 346. 
Oxford, University, 228, 247. 



Pacific Ocean, 220, 256, 259. 
Padua (pa'dua), 248, 251, 265. 



Palestine, 12, 15, 20, 25-30, 94, 95, 200, 

203-212. 
Palmerston, Lord, .368, 371. 
Paper Invented, 253. 
Paphlagonians, 21. 
Paraguay, 421. 
Paris, City, 198, 199, 229, 247, 2.50, 282- 

284, 348, 351, 380-385, 391, 399. 400, 404, 

408-411. 
Paris, Treaties of, .367, .362, 405. 
Paris,* 'ounts of, Ins, 189. 
Parliament, English, 220, 233,306-317, 

300, 3ti:i. 307. 
Parma, 405. 

Parma, Alexander, Duke of, 301, 302. 
Parma, Margaret, Duchess of, 299. 
Parthia, Paithians, .32, 99, 100, 134, 

130, 145, 150, 151. 

Patricians', Rom., 107-115, 118, 119, 

129. 
Pausa'nias, 72, 81. 
Pavia, 171, 173, 18.5, 267. 
Peasants, 188, 2(0, 228, 236, 271. 
Pekin, 221. 
Pelas'gi,53, 109. 
Pelay'o, 179, 1S3. 
Peloponnesian War, 74-76, 88. 
Peloponne'sus, 54, 58, 63-65, 78. 
Penn, William, 333, 335. 
Pennsylvania, 332, .33.5, 424. 
Pericles i-clfcs), 73, 74, 88, 90. 
Perry, Commodore, 420, 428. 
Persep'olis, 95. 
Persia, Persians, 13, 31-41, 70-72, 96, 

151, 152, 1.55, 176, 177, 273. 
Persia, Kings of: 

Cyrus (B. C. 5.58), 18, 20, 24, 28-33, 88. 

Camby'ses (.529), 32, 3.3, 39. 

The False Smerdis (.522), .33. 

Darius I. (.521), 3.3-:i5, 41, 70. 

Xerxes (486), 35-37, 71. 

Artaxerxes I. (40.5), 36, 81. 

Darius II. (424), .36. 

Artaxerxes II. (40.5), 37, 76, 77. 

Artaxerxes III. (3.59), 37. 

Arses (338), 37. 

Darius III. (.336), .37, 38, 94, 9.5. 
Persian Empire, New, 151-1.55, 175- 

177. 
Persian Gulf, 1.5, 19, 97. 
Peru, 250, 294, 422, 427. 
Peter the Hermit, 203, 204, 211. 
Petition of Rights, Eng., 308, 309. 
Petrarch, 248, 249, 2.51. 
Pharaoh (title), 46, 49. 
Phid'ias, 90, 91,9.3. 
Philadelphia, 327, 335, .364, 419, 426. 
Philip of Austria, 2<i4, 268. 
Philip'pa, Queen, of England, 227. 
Philippine Is., 2.50, 3()2. 
Philistines, 12, 26. 
Philopoe'men, 103, 105. 
Philosophers, Greek, 88-90, 93. 
Phocis, 59, 79. 
Phoenicia, I'hcenicians, 10, 12, 15, 16, 

19, 2(1, 23, 32, .33, 37, 46, 48, 54, 94. 
Phrygians, 21, 36. 



(444) 



Pin 



INDEX. 



Rom 



Pindar, 86. 

Pi-sis'tratus, 66-69, 91. 

Pit'tacus, ss, 93. 

Pitt, Will., Earl of Chatham, 344, 362 

363, 371. 
Pitt, Will., Son, 386. 
Pius VII., Pope, 386, 391. 
Pius IX., Pope, 401, 410, 417. 
Pizar'ro, 256. 
Plague in London, 313. 
Plantag'enets, 225-233, 296. 
Plassy, battle at, 373, 377. 
Platse'a, battle, 36, 72. 
Plato, Sli, iiO, 93. 
Plattsburgh, battle, 420. 
Plebe'ians, Rom., 108, 110, 112-116, 

lis, 119, 129. 
Poitiei-s (pwii te a'), 180, 227, 241. 
Poitou (pwii too'), 207, 232. 
Poland, Poles, 171, 337, 339, 341, .344- 

347, :;:)(), 39S, 400. 
Poland, Auu'ustus II., King of, 339. 
Pole, Canliiial, 292. 
Polk, President, 422. 
Polycarp, liishup, 145. 
Pomerania, 323. 
Pompeii (-pfi'ye) destroyed, 144. 
Pompey, 133-135. 
Pontius, General, 117, 120. 
Pontus, War with, 131-133, 138. 
Pope, Alex., 317. 
Popes defend Rome, 181. 
Popes, Plurality of, 243-245. 
Portugal, Portuguese, 126, 25.5, 258, 

303, 328, 329, 334, 388, 389. 
Prague (priig), 243, 244, 246, 321, 322. 
Praxit'eles, 90, 93. 
Presburg, Treaty of, 386, 389. 
Printing, 209, 231, 233, 253, 254. ' 
Provence (-vonss'), 184, 187, 215. 
Provence, Language oif, 248. 
Provinces, Roman, 123-126, 137, 141, 

144. 
Prussia, Prussians, 210, 341-345, 356, 

362, 390, 395, 396, 406-409. 
Prussia, Kings of: 

Frederic I. (A. D. 1701), 341. 

Frederic William I. (1713), 341, 342. 

Frederic II., the Great (1740-1786), 
342-344. 

Frederic William IIL (1797), ;^7, 
388, 391. 

Frederic William IV. (1S40), 401. 

William 1. (isoh, i(i,s, .}oi», 414. 
Pultawa ipulta'wa), battle, 339, 346. 
Punic Wars, 121-128. 
Puteoli, 132. 
Pyd'na, battle, 103. 
-Pyramids, 43, 61, 385. 
Pyrenees, 123, 179, 185, 351. 
Pyr'rhus, 117, 120. 

Quebec, 330, 334, 356 357, 362. 
Queretaro (quereta'ro), 406. 
Quito (ke'to), 421. 

Racine (ra seen'), 355. 
Raleigh (ra'leigh), 293, 297, 307. 



Ram'eses II., 44. 

Ba'phia, battle, 12, 18. 

Raven'na, 171-174, 184, 266. 

Raymond, Ct. of Toulouse. 204, 234. 

Red .Sea, 19, 26, 255. 

Reformation, The, 8, 270-279, 289,290, 

299. 
Reg'ulus, Consul, 122, 126. 
Rehobo'am, 27. 
Req'uesens, 300, 301. 
Rheims (reemz), 230. 
Rhine, R., 141, 142, 148, 155, 169, 216, 

.>5(), 354, 4(IS. 
Rhode Island, 3'>2. 
Rhodes, 5,S, I'lo, 272. 
Rhone, It., 131, 169, 187, 274. 
Richard, Prince, 208, 233. 
Richelieu (reesh le ft), Cardinal, 322, 

326, 350, SJS. 
Ridley, Bishop, 292. 
Rienzi (re en'ze), 215, 218, 251. 
Rio Grande 423. 

River-valleys, first centers of popu- 
lation, 7, 42. 
Robert of Normandy, 198, 204. 
Robert the Strong, 198, 199. 
Robespierre, 382, 383. 
Rochelle' 308, 350. 
Roderick the Goth, 179, 183. 
Roland, .Mme, 382. 393. 
Rollo, 195, 196, 199. 
Roman Kniperors: 

Augustus, 137-142, 146. 

Tiberius, 142. 

Caligula, 142, 143. 

Claudius, Nero, 143, 148. 

Vespasian, Titus, 144, 148. 

Domitian, Nerva, 144. 

Trajan, 144, 149. 

Hadrian, 69, 144, 145. 

T. A. Antoninus, M. A. Antoninus, 
145, 149. 

Com'modus, 145. 

Sept. Seve'rus, 150. 

Caracalla, 150, 151. 

Macrinus, Elagabalus, A. Severus, 
151. 

Decius, 152, 156. 

Valerian, 152, 159. 

Aurelian, 152, 156. 

Diocletian and Maximian, 152, 153, 
156, 157. 

Constantine I., 153, 154, 157. 

Constans, Constantine II., Con- 
staiitius II., Julian, Jovian, 155. 

VahMitiiiian, Valens, 159. 

Theoddsius, 159, 160, 162. 
Roman Knijierors of the East: 

Arcadius, 160, 162. 

Zeno, 161 ; 

Justinian, 174-176. 

Heraclius, Leo III., 17.5-177. 

Basil I., Basil II., 175, 177. 

Con.stantine VI., 186. 

Alexis Comnenus, 204, 212. 

Isaac Angelus, 207. 

John Palfeologus, 244. 

Constantine XII., 222. 



(445) 



Rom 



INDEX. 



Sch 



Koman Emperors of tlie West: 

Hoiinrius, KiO, 103. 

Autiustulus, 161. 
R(jman Kinperors of the West and 
Iviut;s of (ieriuany: 

CharltMii.-mne (A. D. 800), 18,5-187, 192. 

Louis the .Mild (814), 187. 

Lotlmin- iMOi, 1S7. 

Louis \\. (S.Vii, l,S7, 102. 

Charles II. (87.5), 187, 102. 

Charles III. (87«-888), 108, 199. 

Conrad I. (911), 190, 198. 

Henrv I. (919), 189. 

OtJio I. (002), 189. 

Otlio II. (073), 100. 

Otho III. (083), 190, 103. 

Henrv II. (1002), 190. 

( 'onrad II. (1024), 190. 

Henry III. (Io30),10(^ 

Henrv I\'. (lo.")(i-110(ii, l!)0, 191, 193. 

Conrad III. (ll.'W), 20(;, -Jlii. 

Frederic I. (1152), 200,214. 

Henrv VI. (1191), 214. 

Frederic II. (1212-1250), 207, 208, 214. 

Rudolph I. (1273-1292), 214, 218. 

Louis V. (1314). 242, 245. 

Charles IV. (1347), 242. 

Wenceslaus (1378), 242-244. 

Rupert (1400), 243. 

Sigisnuind (1410), 243-245, 271. 

Albert II. (1438), 24.5. 

Frederic III. (1440), 24.5, 246. 

Maximilian I. (1493), 245, 246, 266. 

Charles V. (1.519), 264-277, 303-.305. 

Ferdinand I. (1.558), 273, 276, 272, 273. 

Maximilian II. (1564), 321. 

Rudolph II. (1576), 321, 322. 

Mattliias (1612). .322. 

Ferdinand II. (1610), 322-324. 

Ferdinand III. (1637), 324. 

Leopold I. (1658), 341,^54. 

Joseph I. (170.5), 354. 

Charles VI. (1711), :M2, a54. 

Charles Vll. (1742), 342, 343. 

Francis I. (1745), 343. 

Joseidi II. (1765), 345, 347. 

Leopold II. (1790). 

Francis II. (1792-1806), 385, 386. See 
Auxtriit, Frrn^ci-s I. 
Koman Empire. 8, \:U, 140-162, 167, 168. 
Koman Empire of the Ktn^t, 160-163, 

174-177, 104, 106, 215, 221, 222 
Koman Empire of the West, Re- 
vived, 186-193, 213, 242-21(i, .".25, 386. 
Rome Citv, 42, 106-115, 130-135, 110, 

113, 160, 167, ISl, 186, 187, 189, 202, 204, 

214, 215, :!(i0, 401, 410, 416, 417. 
Rome, Kingdom and Kings of, 107. 
Rome, Hepuhlic, 48, 107-1.37. Re- 

vivctl, 181. 21.5, 401. 
Roses, Wars of, 2.!0, 231. 
Rosetta Stone, 102. 
Rotharis (rolha'ris), 171, 173. 
Roumania (rouma'nia), 149,367, 368, 

413. 
Rubicon R., 13.5. 
Rupert, Prince, 310, 319. 
Russell, Lord William, 314. 



Russia, Russians, 17, 21, 171, 175, 194, 

105, 200, 221, 337-340, 343-347, 366-371, 

388, 390, 396-398, 411-414. 
Russia, Sovereigns of: 

Ruric (A. D. 862-879), 194. 

Vladimir (980-101.5), 19.5. 

Yaro.slav (1019-105.5), 195. 

Ivan III. (1462-1.505), 337. 

Ivan IV. (1538), 337. 

Feodor I. (1584-1.598), 337. 

Michael III. (1613-1W.5), 337. 

Feodor II. (1676), 338. 

Ivan v., with Peter I. (1682), 339. 

Peter I. (alone, 1689), 338-340, 346-347, 

Catherine I. (172.5-1727), 340. 

Elizabeth (1741), 344. 

Peter III. (1762), 344. 

Catherine II. (1762-1796), 344, ,345, 347. 

Alexander I. (18ol), :is8-;^91, 402. 

Nicholas I. (1825), :!(17, .371, ;^97^0O. 

Alexander II. (1855), .308, 413, 414. 

Alexander III. (l.SNl), 414. 
Rye House Plot, 313. 
Ryswick, Treaty of, 316, 3&4. 



Sabines, 117. 

Sacred War, Greek, 79. 

Sad'owa, battle of, 407. 

Sages, The Seven, (Seven Wise Men 

of Greece), 88. 93. 
Saladin, 200, 20!i, 212. 
Salamanca University, 2.56. 
Sal'amis, battle of, 36, 71, 8.5. 
Salic Law, 236, 240, 399. 
Salonica (-ne'ka), 412. 
Samarcand', 180, 224, 2.53. 
Samaria, 28, .30. 

Sam'mura'mit, (Semiramis), 11, 18. 
Sam'nium, Samnites, 115-117. 
Samos, 87. 

San Francisco, 297, 423. 
San'hedrim, lol. 
San Slefano, Treaty of, 412. 
Santa Soi)hia, Church of, 174, 176. 
Sar'acens. 175, 177-183, 196, 203, 205, 

209,274. 
Saratoga, battle at, 304. 
Sardinia Isl., 122, 137, 161, 174. 
Sardinia Kingdom, 39.5. 
Sardinia, Victor Emanuel, King of, 

405, 406. See Italy. 
Sardis, 21, 3.5, 41. 
Sassan'idse, 151, 174. 
Savannah Riv., 362. 
Savonarola, 204,208. 
Savoy, .3.53; House of, 401, 416. 
Saxons, 1.59, lOO, 109, 185, 186, 191. 
Saxony, Dukes of, 189, 275. 
Saxony, Electors of: 

Frederic III., the M^ise (14,86-1.52.5), 
271, -371. 

.John the Steadfast (1.52.5), 278. 

John Frederic the Magnanimous 
(1.532), 275. 

Maurice (1548-1,5.53), 275, 276. 

John George I. (1611-1&56), 32,3, 324. 
Schleswig-Holstein War, 406. 



(446) 



Sch 



INDEX. 



The 



Schliemann (shlee'-), Dr., 55. 
Schonbrunn, Treaty of, :^9. 
Scio, :i!t7. 

Scipio, Family, 124, 127, 128. 
Scipio Africaiius Major, 124-12S. 
Scotland, Scots, l(j, 15lt, 171, 220, 227, 

.■!l)l)-:n2, :nii, .'iOO, M\. 
Scotland, Sovereigns of: 

James IV. (1488), 288. 

.lames V. (1513), 281, 2.S8, 291. 

Marv (1542),2Sl,2!tl-2ii;.:. 
Scott, <ien. Winficld, 12.;, 42y. 
Scythians, 7, l:i, 27, 2S, :;o, 31, 34, lOlJ. 
Sedgemoor, liattle at, 315. 
Seleucidae. Sec Siiria, Kings of . 
Sepoy Rcbclli(Jii, 374, 375. 
Servia, 412, 413. 
Servile War, Rom., 129, 131 
Sevasto'pol, "(W. 
Seven Weeks' War, 4(i7. 
Seven Years' War, 313, 344, 362, 373. 
Sforza (sfort'sa) Lmlovico, 264, 268. 
Shakespeare, 2S5, 295, 
Shera, Semites, 10, 16, LS, 21, 23. 
Ship-money, ;i09, 318. 
Siberia, 223, 337, 398. 
Sicily, 48, 54, 75, 76, 106, 118, 121-123, 

131, 132, 161, 174, 181, 214, 236. 
"Sicilies," " Kinttilom of the Two," 

197,214, 215,254, 3SS, (iiij. 
Sidney, Algernon, 314, 335. 
Sidney, Philip, 295. 
Sidon, 19, 20, 23. 
Silesia (se la'si a), 342-344. 
Slavonians, Slavs. 17, 171, 1^5. 
Smalcald, League of, 273, 278. 
Smyrna, 92, 145. 413. 
Social War, (iroek, 78. 
Social War, Roman, 131, 138. 
Soc'rates, 77, 88-90. 
Solferino (-e'no), battle, 406. 
Solomon, 11, 20, '21, 26. 
Solon, 51, 65-68, 88, 93. 
Somerset, IHikc of, 290, 291. 
Soto, Ftndinand de, 257. 
Spain, Siaaniards, 17, 19, 2.3, 123-128, 

135, 159, 160, 16S, 170, 179-183, 185, 254- 

259, 302, 303, 320, 321, .329, 330, 353-358, 

388, 389, 395-399, 407-411. 
Spain, Kings and Queens of: 

Fur lurdiiKiiul and Isabella see Ara- 
i/iin anil Castile. 

Joanna (1516), 264, '268. 

Charles I. (1516). See Rom. Enq). of 
West, Charles V. 

Philip II. (1556), 276, 291-294, 299-305, 
320, 348. 

Philip III. (1.591), 303. 

Philip IV. (1621), 349. 
• Charles II. (1665), 354. 

Philip V. (1700-1746), 354, .35.5, 370. 

Charles IV. (1788), 388, 389. 

Ferdinand VII. (1814), 388, 391, 396, 
398. 

Isabella II. (1S;13-1868), 399, 407. 

Aniadeo I. (1S70), 411. 

Alfonso ilS73i, 411. 
Spanish Succession, War of, 316, 3.54. 



Sparta, Spartans, a5, 37, 54, 63-65, 71- 

78, .S6. 
Spar'tacus, 132, 133. 
Spice Islands, 302, 
Spires, Diet at, 272, 
Spurs, hat tie of the, 288. 
Star « liamber, Eng. Court, 309. 
States General, French, 457, .379, 380. 
States General of Netherlands, 298, 
St. Denis, Abbots of, 189. 
St. Helena, Id., 392. 
St. John, Knights of. See HuspiUd- 

lers. 
St. Lawrence R., 334, 357. 
Stoics, HI, 14.5, 149. 
St. Petersburg, 339. 
Strafford, Karl of, 309. 
Stralsund, 'L'.l, 340. 
Strasburg, .3.53, 4(i9. 
Stratford de Redclitfe, Lord. 367. 
Stuart, House of, :i(H;-:;i7, ■■Kiii, 361. 
Stuart, James Francis Edward, 315, 

316, 360, 361. 
Stuart, Charles Edward, .361. 
Sulla, L. Cornelius, 130-132. 
Sully, Duke of, 349. 
Sweden, Swedes, 272, 324, 331,. 336, .337, 

389, .390. 
Sweden, Kings and Queens of: 

ISIargaret Waldemar, 336, 

Gustavus Va'sa (1.5'23), 336. 

Gustavus Adolphus (1611), .323, 324, 

.327, 336. 

Christi'na (1632), 3.36, 337, 346. 

Charles X. (1654), 337. 

Charles XII. (1697), 339, 340, 346. 
Switzerland, l.il, 169, 216-219, 272,279, 

4'25, 
Sydney, Australia, 375, ,376. 
Syracuse, 76, 81, 124. 
Syria, Syrians, 12, 15, 20, 21, 37, 50, 99, 

l;;.;, 179, 2(l4-206, 208. 
Syria, Kings of: 

Seleucus (B. C, 301-280), 99, 104. 

Antiochus III. (2-23-187), 100, 104, r25, 
126, 128. 

Antiochus IV. (17.5-164), 100, 104. 



Tamerlane (Timour), 221, 224. 

Tartars, 203, 208, 220, 337, .344. 

Tasma'nia, .376. 

Taylor, Gen. Zachary, 422, 429. 

Tei-el-Keba- (ka beer'), battle, 418. 

Temesvar, Vjattle, 400. 

Templars, Knights, 205, 206, 210, 236, 

240. 
Teutonic Knights, 205, 210, 341. 
Teutons, 17, 131, 148 
Texas, 422, 423. 
Thales, ss, 93. 
Thapsus, battle, 135. 
Thebes in Egypt, 4'2, 4.5, 46, 50. 
Thebes, Thebans, Greek, 61, 71, 77- 

79. 
Themistocles, 71, .80, 90. 
Theodoric the Great, 170, 172, 174. 
Theodosius, General, 159. 



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The 



/XDEX. 



Zv/i 



Thermopylse, 3.5, 60, 71. 

Theseus (.tlies'use), 55, til. 

Thessaloni'ca, i;i3, lt)2, 181. 

Thessaly, 36. 

Thiers (te er'), W-K J J". -11''. 

Thirty Years War, •■li'J-oJ4,327. 

Thrace, Thraciaiis, 21, ;i5, 79, 99, 154, 

Kilt. 
Thrasybulus, 72. 
Thucyd'ides, 87, 88. 
Tiber, U., 106. 

Tiberias, Lake, battle at, 206. 
Tientsin', Treaty of, 374. 
Tigris U., 10, 38, 150. 
Torgau (-gow'). League of, 272. 
Tories, Eiig., 314, 360, 370, 417. 
Toulon (too Ion'), Siege of, 383. 
Toulouse (too loos'), 199, 248. 
Toulouse, Counts of, 199, 204. 
Tours (toor) City, 409. 
Tours, battle near, 180, 184. 
Trafalgar, battle, 386, :387, 394. 
Trent, Council at, 275, 276. 
Tribunes, Rom., 113, 115, 129, 215, 218. 
Triple Alliance, The, 352. 
Triumvirate, First, 134. 
Triumvirate. Second, 136, 137, 146. 
Trochu (tro shu'), General, 409. 
Troubadours, 248. 
Troy, Siege of, 55. 
" Truce of God," The, 200. 
Tudor, House of, 231, 287-295. 
Tunis, 20S, 274, 417. 
Turkey, Turks, 20:3-205, 208-211, 220- 

222, 265, 272-278, 337, :M0, 367-369, 397, 

411-413. 
Turkey, Sultans of: 

Othman (A. D. 1288-1326), 221. 

Amurath I. (1360), 222. 

Bajazet I. (i;W9-1403), 221, 222. 

Mohammed II., 222. 

Solyman I. (1.520), 272-274, 320. 

Selim II. (156(5-1574), 321. 

Mohammed III. (1.595-1618), 321. 

Abdul :Me(liid (1840), 367. 

Alxl-el-Aziz (1861-1876), 411, 412. 
Tuscany, 188, 193, 405. 
" Twelve Tables," Laws of, 114. 
Ty'cho Briihe, 321, 326, 327. 
Tyre, Tyrians, 19, 20, 23, 48, 95. 



Ulm (oolm), 388. 

United States, 105, 219, 331, .362-364, 

.374, 419-129. 
Universities, 243, 247, 248, .397. 
Urban II., Pope, 203. 
Uruguay, 421. 
Utrecht, Province, 300, 352. 
Utrecht, Treaty of, 317, 354. 

Valois (val wa'), House of, 236, 280, 

284, :>50. 
Vandals, 160, 161. 
Vauban (v6 boN'), 3.5;B. 
Vaudois (vo dwJi'), 275, 280, 311. 
Venezue'la, 421. 



Venice, 207, 215, 222, 255, 265, 384, 385, 

407. 
Vera Cruz, 423. 

Verdun (verduN'), Treaty of, 187, 192- 
Versailles, 357, 364, 409, 410. 
Vervins (ver vaN'), Treaty of, 302. 
Vesuvius, Mt., 144; battle near, 116. 
Victoria, Colony, 376. 
Vienna, Austria, 145, 273, 384, 389, 395, 

100, 407. 
Vienne, France, 145. 
Villegagnon (-giin yoN'), 334. 
Virginia, 293, 332, 419, 423. 
Visconti (-te), 21.5. 
Visigoths, 159, 160, 169. 
Volga R., 161. 
Volscians, 113, 114. 



Wales, 169, 171, 226. 

Wallachia (val la'kia). See Rou- 

nuoiia. 
Wallenstein (-stine), 322-324, 327. 
Walpole, Rob't, 361, 370. 
"Warwick, Earl of, 230, 231. 
Washington, Gen., .362, 364, 418,426. 
Waterloo, battle. 392. 
Wat Tyler's Rebellion, 228. 
Wellington, Duke of, 389, 391, 392, 

:i94. 
Westphalia, Kingdom of, .389. 
Westphalia, Treaty of, 325, .3.50, 
Whigs, Eng., 314, 3(30. 
Wicliffe, 228, 229, 249, 2.52. 
Wilberforce, 36(3. 
Wilkes, John, .362, 363. 
Wolfe, (ien., a')7. 
Wolseley, Sir (iarnet, 418. 
Wolsey, Cardinal, 2r,t;, 28S, 289, 296. 
Worcester, battle at, 311. 
World's Fairs, 367, 425. 
Worms, 1 »ict at, 271. 
Writing, Art of, 10, 20, 43, 54, 84, 102, 



Xenoph'anes, 89. 
Xen'ophon, 37, 41, 88. 
Xeres (lia'res), battle of, 179, 183. 
Xerxes, 35, 36, 71. 



York, House of, 230, 231, 287. 

York, .lames, Duke of. See England, 

Kinq James IT. 
York, Richard, Duke of, 230. 
York, ( ity, 150, 158, 309, 310. 
Yorktown, Va., 364. 
Ypsilanti (ip se lan'te), 397, 40.3. 

Zama izJi'ma), battle, 124. 
Zapolya, John, 273, 274. 
Zealand, 224-22ii. 
Zend Avesta, 38, 40. 
Zo'ro-as'ter, 31, 34, ;«, 40. 
Zurich, 272, 278. 
Zwingli, Ulrich, 272, 278. 



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